What Comes After
by The TO
Summary: OFFLINE PENDING REWRITE Blue convinced Red not to take her own life that fateful day. She discovered that not all of humanity had perished. Three years later, the Process are all but a bad memory. Red has become a hero to many. But how will she fare in a world of heroes?
1. Chapter 1

The alarm jolted Red into consciousness. She couldn't remember what her dream was about, but she knew that familiar cold, clenching feeling firmly lodged around her heart. She was dreaming about the Collapse again. She breathed a sigh of relief as she gently grasped the handle of the Transistor. The Collapse has been over for three years. She had no need to worry, especially after what she was to do today. Today she was scheduled to clear the Process from Bracket Tower, the final infested area of Cloudbank.

"It's okay Red, I'm here." The familiar voice of her former lover spoke softly. She gave a small smile and wrapped the luminescent sword in a hug.

"I know, Blue." She whispered. After the momentary display of affection, she placed Blue back in his case and climbed out of bed. Taking only a moment to stretch she grabbed a towel from the nearby open closet and sauntered towards the shower. She knew that Blue liked to watch, despite not being able to do anything, save for the few times she was feeling frisky. The shower was heavenly, if brief. She couldn't afford to dawdle, after all. Today was the day she was going to finally be rid of the nightmare that plagued her slumber and start fresh.

"I enjoyed the show," Blue said slyly. She couldn't help but crack a smile. "Maybe tonight we could… uhhh…" He trailed off, knowing that she knew what he was asking.

She shot him a coy grin. "We'll see," Despite the noncommittal tone, both knew that that meant yes. Red walked into the closet and selected an identical version of what she wore three years ago when she first came into possession of the Transistor. Some of Cloudbank's younger survivors had gone so far as to call her a super hero. She adored her younger fans, hence why she played up the outfit. Though this one had gone through several modifications over the years. The leggings had gone from normal stockings to ones made of a dense ballistic mesh. It stopped the more in your face types of Process from doing too much damage before she could end them. The jacket was reinforced with light armor plates. After a Jerk had managed to briefly pin her under one of its arms, she felt an upgrade was in order. The same weave she wore on her legs also adorned her arms. It was mostly fire retardant and practically immune to the forms of energy that the Process used. Both Cloudbank and her own skills had improved massively since the Collapse. She now held four of each Function and could rearrange them at any time. She could even upgrade a Function with two more of the same to create a Program. It was any given function taken to the extreme. Her personal favourite was Reap, a thrice-stacked Cull. It cut all but the most powerful Process in half with only a single use.

"It's almost time to go," Blue's urgent voice drew her out of her thoughts. She had finished securing the straps that held the jacket together in front and quickly drew her hair back into a ponytail. She grabbed the Transistor and, with a wave of her hand, shut the door and strode down the sidewalk towards Bracket Tower. It was a short walk, only a kilometer away. Cardio was something that Red had nearly died from a lack of during the Collapse. Weakness and drowsiness had almost brought her life to an end as often as the energy beams of a Younglady or a Jerk's drill arms. She reached the edge of the enormous crowd within ten minutes, a mere quarter of an hour before she was officially supposed to be there. The crowd parted like a school of fish before an apex predator, allowing her access to the podium where she was to make her speech beside the mayor.

"Pleasure to see you again, Red." Cloudbank's mayor, a pudgy woman by the name of Alyssa Reisz, none other than the half-sister of Sybil, greeted her. Alyssa's election was a matter of controversy once the list of people responsible for the Collapse was released to the public, but she had been a very good mayor to the people of Cloudbank. Always fair in her dealings with the other surviving towns and cities. Red had examined the logs and found that several other cities were under assault by the Process, but they had mysteriously withdrawn solely to Cloudbank at around 2 A.M. She managed to piece together that that was about the time she stabbed the Transistor into the Spine's heart. Evidently slaying one of the Process's most fearsome automatons was something that garnered their attention. She had won in the end, though. The crowd had finally begun to settle down and Mayor Reisz was beginning her portion of the speech.

"People of Cloudbank, three long years ago the Collapse threatened to end humanity as a whole. Only due to the actions of our very own Red Aurorae were we able to survive to this momentous day. Today is the day where humanity's scourge, the Process, is wiped from the face of Cloudbank forever. Behind me stands Bracket Tower, the headquarters of the Camerata, those of whom were responsible for the Collapse. In mere minutes, Red will enter the tower and begin cleansing it, thus bringing the boogeyman known as the Process, to its official end." The crowd roared in approval. "Before she begins, Red would like to say a few words to our fine city." With that, Alyssa retreated to the side and offered Red the center stage. Having long since become accustomed to the spotlight, Red felt no fear in going up before Cloudbank's 20 million plus citizens.

"Three years ago, I spent blood, sweat, and tears to bring an end to the Process. Though something that none of you know, just before I began cleansing the city, I was moments away from ending my own life." The crowd gasped, as if she had said that she was going to end her life then and there. "It was only due to the actions of my partner, who unfortunately perished that fateful day, did I stay my hand and begin cleaning up our city to honor his memory." She held back a sob. "Which is why today we all stand here, in a city of freedom. Of life, and love. Of hope." Red unsheathed the Transistor from her back and held it easily in one hand. "My partner gave me hope that day, something that I had almost lost. He sacrificed himself so I could live on. And today, I bring my promise to him to its ultimate conclusion. Today I claim the last part of the city infested by Process in the name of humanity. Today, I take back the last piece of the city that was lost three years ago to the vile Process!" She raised Blue into the air with a cheer, which the crowd mirrored with aplomb. They could probably hear the cheering all the way up in Junction City. She turned about face and marched into the sealed tower, the doors parting by force of will alone. Once she was inside she sealed the doors and reinforced the quarantine. No Process would be leaving here today. She would make sure of that.

"Finally, it's almost over," Blue spoke softly. Red squeezed the handle of the Transistor in acknowledgement. Red steeled herself and marched forward deeper into the almost blindingly white building. The first enemy to attack her was a Creep 3.0. Not even bothering to go into Turn(), she cast a Get() on it and bisected it with a slash from her weapon. That was another thing that Red had improved upon vastly in the time since the Collapse. She had grown much stronger and could wield the hefty Transistor like an actual sword. Despite not appearing sharp, it still functioned as well as the sharpest katanas in existence. She could alter almost anything about the Transistor at will. The device that she wielded was a fickle thing at first, but now she had truly mastered it, even to the point where she could transform it from a thick zweihander into many different melee weapons. Her personal favourite was the zweihander, but she often found herself using the axe form of it. The battle axe was the longest reaching version of her weapon, often needed against the more dangerous forms of Jerks and Man. Speaking of which, a green-haired Man appeared from the wall a short distance in front of her. Even before her brain could process the fact that it was raising its hands to summon a Haircut, she triggered Turn(). The world slowed to a crawl as her brain interfaced with the Transistor, lending its processing power to her. She walked forward with almost a casual gait, and slashed at the green haired Man thrice. Ending the action, she felt her body speed up and move of its own accord. Just as the Transistor lent its power to her, she lent her body to it, enabling the superhuman feats that she performed. The Transistor acted out her action, quickly closing the gap between herself and the Man. In the blink of an eye, three slashes were imparted upon the Man, rending it into six pieces. The Haircut that was forming ceased to exist, being hit by two of the slashes.

"Easy as cake," Red spoke with a grin as she moved on from the slowly evaporating Process. As if beckoned by the death of their comrade, four more Men appeared in typical fashion, summoned from seemingly nowhere. One of each color, she noted dryly. This would be a more difficult fight, but nothing she couldn't handle. Taking a deep breath, she triggered Turn() once more. The power of SuperUser suddenly flowed through her, making her take a moment to relax. She looked around at the four Men that surrounded her with a dangerous smirk. She could feel everything. The subtle whirring of whatever made the Process tick, the slow, raspy breathing of the Men, even the distant, dull speech that the mayor was still giving outside. She felt it all. With a gesture, she cast Kill() and ended Turn(). The world around her exploded with electric energy, the Process around her tensed up and began seizing, their distorted voices groaning in pain. The Kill() field ended, causing the four Men to collapse to the ground, dead. She slowly floated to the ground and looked around to appraise her work. She had figured out how to control the SuperUser function over a year ago, but it still popped up randomly from time to time when she used Turn().

"Still as deadly as ever, Red." Blue chimed in during the brief respite.

"You know it, Blue." Red replied with a smirk as she ventured further into the infested building. She cleared out four floors before she found a somehow still active terminal. Curious, she disabled the screensaver and was presented with a survey.

 **Help make Cloudbank better again:**

The Goldwalk Channel has always been a popular destination, but has been plagued by debris and litter. This petition would clear all litter from the area and add new trees and plants to the area in an effort to beautify it.

 _Signatures needed: 316,255_

 _Signatures acquired: 316,254_

Red stared at the screen dumbfounded. This was a three-year-old survey back when Cloudbank ran off of the automated systems. It had long since been transferred to manual control, but the fact that this survey was only one signature away proved that the old system was still active. Even more curious, was the fact that the survey was only one vote short of being passed.

"Is this real?" Red asked Blue, staring down at the Transistor currently leaning against the terminal.

Blue was silent for a moment before responding. "I don't know, it looks real enough, but you disconnected the server from the city, so it shouldn't be any problem." He elaborated, assuaging Red's fears. She put in a vote for yes, if only to see what would happen. The terminal beeped, before lines of text began scrawling across it faster than she could comprehend. Eventually, it resolved whatever glitch had been caused.

 **Petition reached required signatures.**

 **Accessing…  
.**  
 **.**

 **Unable to access mainframe.**

 **Error…**

 **System compromised…**

 **Resolving…**

 **Unable to resolve…**

 **Shutting down…**

 **.**

The terminal beeped and went dark. Red stared at it surprised. She didn't know what to expect, but she hadn't expected it to just shut down with no glamour. She hummed in disappointment and moved on. There were still Process to kill after all. A group of Badcells decided to ambush her as soon as she left the defunct terminal. They blasted her with their blackish energy. She managed to dodge most of them, but the cells were incredibly dexterous. She fired a Bounce(Breach(Ping())) at one of them, and watched in satisfaction as the charge bounced and hit half a dozen more of the cells before fizzling out. She finished off the remaining two cells with simple slashes. The cells quickly dissolved into nothing and the Transistor told her that there was only one enemy remaining in the tower. She quickly ascended to the top floor. Her chrono told her that nearly three hours had passed since she entered the building.

"Careful Red, I'm not feeling so good." Blue chimed in weakly from the fizzling Transistor. She scanned around, looking for the hidden Process, when a loud roar suddenly came from above. She leapt backwards just in time to avoid the head of a Spine crashing down powerfully where she was standing. It roared at her, spewing cells everywhere. Most of them were absorbed by the Transistor, but the few that hadn't were changed into the varying forms of Men. Seven of them to be exact. This would be an incredibly tough fight, especially given that SuperUser was still recharging. As one, the Men summoned Haircuts that proceeded to move forward towards her. She grit her teeth and cast a Tap(Cull(Breach))). The shadowy haircuts were thrown backwards towards their masters, detonating upon impact with the ground. The Men were still alive, but heavily damaged. They Masked once more and began to circle around her, all the while the Spine was overseeing the fight, as if content to wait for the Men to deal with her. With a thought, she converted her Zweihander into a long lance. She spun and embedded the bladed end of the head into a red colored Man, causing the Process to shut down and begin dissolving almost instantly. The remaining Men made a synchronized Jaunt() at her, hoping to catch her off guard. She loosened the weapon from the decaying Man, spun, and stabbed forward where two Men were standing, piercing both through the chest. With a powerful leap, she leapt onto the head of the black-colored Man. With a yell, she ripped the spear downward, slicing the two Men in two pieces. Before they could even begin dissolving, she leapt into the air and twirled her spear around, striking a fourth Man in the back of the neck, decapitating it. Three Men left, then she had to deal with the Spine. It loomed overhead, observing her. The Men charged at her again, this time one of them caught her with a swipe across her armored back. This his sent her out of control across the room towards where she had entered. The Men took advantage of the momentary lapse in awareness and summoned three Haircuts.

"Look out, Red!" Blue alerted her to the danger. She triggered Turn() and launched a kick at the three Haircuts, sending them back to the Men. She turned her attention to the Spine. It stared at her through the hyper-accelerated time. She launched three triple stacked Void() at it. Each of the three Abyss() Functions decayed the outer shell of the Spine slightly, she Jaunted behind the head of the Spine and applied Mask() to herself. All that was left to do was to use Reap(). She activated the function and executed Turn(). All at once, the Spine roared in pain as the Abyss() took root in it, the Men were destroyed by their own creations, and the Reap() rendered the Spine into two slowly decaying parts. She landed back on the ground without much pomp. With a smirk, she walked from the room towards the roof staircase.

"All that's left to do is to purify the building itself." Red spoke softly, the fact that the nightmare of the Process was nearly over not sinking in yet. With a flourish, she transformed the Transistor back into the zweihander form and stabbed it into the ground. She focused her will into the building itself, dispelling the Process. Slowly, the building began to heal from a blinding white, to a dull grey and brown. Satisfied that the building was enough along to finish itself, she pulled the Transistor and replaced it in the sheath on her back. Almost immediately, she knew that something was wrong.

" _Reactor self-destruct sequence reinitialized. Resuming countdown. 11. 10. 9."_ A female robotic voice over a previously converted intercom announced in a monotonous tone. She knew that she could never find the bomb in time to disarm it. She focused her will once again, this time to create a shield around the building. She poured her energy into the shield, and had she been looking, she would have seen a teal-colored barrier appear between the crowd outside and Bracket Tower. " _8, 7, 6._ " The crowd fled at the sight, presuming that something had gone wrong and that Red was trying to keep the Process from escaping.

" _5, 4, 3._ " The intercom buzzed dully, as if uncaring of what it was saying.

"Red…" Blue said solemnly. "I'm sorry." The only indication that Red gave that she heard him was a small smile. At least Cloudbank would be safe from the Process after she had died.

" _2, 1, 0."_ Her world disappeared in a bright white light.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N:** I couldn't think of anything to denote singing, so I used a tilde. Hope you enjoy the new chapter.

"~singing~"

" _Red and Blue talking mentally_ "

* * *

Red awoke with a gasp; her breath having left her for no apparent reason. She sat bolt upright. Spotting Blue leaning against the head of the bed that she lay in caused her to relax. What had happened? The last thing she remembered was shielding the citizens from the bomb that was about to go off, and now she was here, in an almost picturesque cabin. Was this what the Country was like? If this truly was the Country, then why wasn't Blue here in his real body, embracing her, kissing her? She gripped the Transistor tightly to her chest.

"You okay, Blue?" She whispered quietly to the sword.

"I'm here, Red." He whispered back. "Where are we?"

"I was hoping you'd know." Red admitted. Neither of them had any idea where they were. She took a moment to survey their surroundings. The first thing that stood out were the pictures. At least two dozen of them. The clear majority had some combination of a small blonde girl and an even younger ravenette with red highlights. She collapsed back onto the bed, the Transistor weighing on her chest.

"I don't think we're in the Country, Blue." She said to the weapon she cradled. The two rested there for less than a minute, before she heard footsteps coming through the house towards her.

"I brought you some food, and a glass of water." A confident male voice spoke from nearby. She turned to see a muscular blonde man in the doorway of the room, a plate with a sandwich on it in one hand and a glass of water in the other. He slowly strode over to Red and placed both items down on the cleared off end table next to the bed. She gulped the water down greedily, having been much thirstier than she realized. It was over halfway gone by the time she stopped. The blonde man just stood there patiently waiting for her to finish. Just before she could bite into the sandwich, he spoke again.

"So, let's get the introductions out of the way. My name is Taiyang. You can call me Tai for short."

"My name is Red." She told him, not looking up from the Transistor.

"Where are you from?" He asked calmly.

She squeezed Blue tighter. "I'm from Cloudbank. I was finally burning out the last of the Process infestation, but something went wrong. There was a bomb, I did everything I could to shield them from the blast." She trailed off.

"Where's Cloudbank?" The man asked, urging her to keep talking.

"Where's the nearest big city?" She countered. "Cloudbank is the biggest city in the world. You guys must be pretty far from it to not know about it."

"The nearest large city is the Kingdom of Vale. We're about 200 miles from it, on a little island called Patch." He answered honestly. "The biggest city in the world is Atlas City, on the continent of Solitas. Their city has a population of 5.4 million, last I checked." He stated.

Red frowned in confusion. "Cloudbank had a population of over 30 million as of the recent census." Red told him. "It's over 20 square miles big."

"There aren't even 30 million people on Remnant." Tai said softly.

Red was in disbelief. "There are over 7 billion people on Emitya." Her whole world was falling apart. She had apparently somehow ended up on a different planet. She accepted that her death was for the greater good, but now she wasn't so sure. With her disappearance, the Process could be loose once more. Her city could be dying all over again and she wasn't there to stop it.

"Red, it's gonna be okay." Blue comforted the breaking woman. If Tai was surprised that her weapon spoke, he didn't show it. She hugged the Transistor close to her chest and sobbed openly. She collapsed against the headboard, curling into a ball in the process.

Tai clearly hadn't expected that sort of situation from Red. "I'm gonna give you some alone time," Tai left the room, leaving Red by herself. Until that is, she saw the tiny ravenette from the pictures.

"Um, hi." the ravenette said with an absolutely adorable voice. "I'm Ruby." Red wiped her tear-filled eyes on the nape of her dress and turned to face the small child. "I'm sorry about your home. I'd be sad too if we had to leave Patch." Red couldn't help but smile at Ruby. "Hugs always make me feel better when I'm sad. Do you want a hug?" This was now officially Red's favourite person on Remnant.

"Okay," Red relinquished her grip on Blue to accept Ruby's hug. The small child squeezed her with an unusual amount of strength for someone who looked three or four years old. "Quite a grip there, Ruby." Red said lightheartedly.

"Oh, sorry. I just got my Aura yesterday and I'm still having problems with it. Daddy said that I have to learn early otherwise it will be harder to learn later."

"You got your aura?" Red said in confusion. "What's that?"

Ruby gasped loudly. "You don't know what Aura is? Everyone knows what aura is!" She exclaimed. "You're a huntress like mommy, you should have Aura." Ruby stared wide eyed at Red.

Clearly Aura was something important to the world she found herself on. "I'm not a huntress." Red told her, not even knowing what a huntress is.

Ruby was disheartened by her answer, but pressed on despite it. "But you have a super cool weapon and everything!" She gestured towards where Blue was laying on the bed. Red gripped Blue tightly again. "What's its name?" Ruby asked, nodding at the weapon cradled in Red's arms.

"His name is Blue." She told Ruby truthfully. "I'd have died a hundred times over without him." Ruby's eyes widened in awe.

"Can you do anything cool with him?" If it was possible for Ruby to look any cuter it should be illegal.

"I can do lots of cool things with him." Red told the child.

Ruby looked up at the User with an excited expression. "Oooh, can you show me?" Red pretended to ponder for a moment before speaking.

"Do you have someplace safe to try stuff out?" Red asked. Kids truly were her weakness. It was a shame she had never had one with Blue while he was alive. Ruby nodded vigorously and bolted out of the room. Red placed Blue back into his holster and followed her, making sure to pick up the sandwich in the process. She turned left into a foyer where the young blonde at someone who looked like an older version of Ruby were sitting on a couch, watching some cartoon she had never seen before.

"Mommy, can Miss Red come with me to the training grounds? I asked her if she could show me some cool stuff with her sword." Ruby was practically buzzing with energy. Suddenly, Red found herself in the spotlight as Ruby's mother and friend both turned to look at her. Red gave a small smile at the duo cuddled together.

"Can I go too mom? I wanna see how she stacks up versus Uncle Qrow's sword." The young blonde asked the Ruby look alike.

"I'll chaperone the two of you," The woman said in a very motherly tone. She turned her attention on Red. "I'm Summer, Ruby's mother and this little firecracker is Yang. She's my stepdaughter, but she's my real daughter in all the ways that matter." Summer said with a smile as she tousled Yang's hair.

"Mom, you know I hate when people mess with my hair." Yang huffed. Red turned her attention back towards Summer.

"Let's go, I'll show you the way." Summer took charge and led their little group outside. Tai was in a nearby shed, doing work at a tool bench. "I'm taking the kids to the training grounds. It seems that Ruby sweet talked our guest into putting on a show and tell with her weapon." Ruby chuckled awkwardly and hid behind her mother.

"Have fun, I'll be starting dinner here shortly. Don't be gone too long." Tai waved them off as he went back to work. Red was confused by his mention of dinner. A brief glance at the sun's position noted that it was either sinking towards the horizon, or just rising. She had been out, if the time was steady between their worlds, for nearly six hours. Considering that she should have died, that was miraculous. The small group continued down a dirt road for about five minutes. Ruby was practically bouncing off of the metaphorical walls in anticipation, whereas Yang just repeatedly glanced at Red, as if sizing her up. They eventually came to a small clearing that was decorated with wooden training dummies that had clearly seen some use.

"We're here!" Ruby announced loudly. Red took a deep breath in anticipation and removed Blue from his holster on her back. Ruby crept closer in order to scrutinize the blade. "It doesn't look very sharp. It looks kinda flat." Red smiled at Ruby and pointed at one of the target dummies with her free hand.

"See that dummy?" Upon receiving two nods of confirmation, she added. "Don't blink or you might miss it." Red got into a combative stance and triggered Turn(). She rushed forward and slashed at the wooden dummy. Once the commands had been confirmed, she ended Turn(). Her body rushed forward and slashed at the dummy. Not only was the dummy bisected, but the tree behind it was as well. A gouge was carved into the earth approximately a foot deep. Perhaps she had overdone it, but the reaction on Ruby and Yang's faces was worth it. Yang was slack jawed at her display. Ruby was positively giddy with excitement. The reaction that worried her the most, however, was Summer. She fixed Red with a calculating look. No look of shock like Yang or look of awe like Ruby. This was treating her like she was a threat.

"Do you think I could speak with you for a moment, Red?" Summer spoke calmly, belying her intention so as to not alarm her children. Red simply nodded in affirmation. "Ruby, Yang." Summer spoke in what Red assumed to be her 'I'm your mother, listen to me' voice. "Stay here, I want to talk to Miss Red in private for a moment." Ruby and Yang agreed and went over to inspect the damage from Red's attack. Summer guided Red to a somewhat secluded area slightly further in the forest.

"What seems to be the problem?" Red said cautiously. Summer stared hard at her, trying to get a read on the singer.

"What are you?" Summer inquired harshly. "I couldn't detect a single bit of Aura within you when I found you and here you are casually displaying enough power to match any Hunter academy graduate." She gestured towards the weapon currently resting in its holster on her back. "So, what is the source of your power, if it isn't Aura?"

"I think that I can answer that better than Red can." Blue chimed in from the weapon. Summer's eyes widened in surprise. "My name is Blue, and up until three years ago, I was her boyfriend, and lover. I had a real body, a human body. But-"

"It's okay, Blue. I can tell it. I have to if I'm to ever get over it." When Blue didn't speak up any further, Red continued. "Up until three years ago, I was a singer. People all over Cloudbank loved to come to my shows. But some people in higher circles thought that my music was too controversial and it interfered with their vision for the city. Eventually, they confronted me and tried to kill me with this." She gestured to the Transistor. "Its real name is the Transistor. And when they tried to kill me, Blue took the blow. Unfortunately, it meant his death." Red took a deep breath. "I can't explain it, exactly. But when it killed him, it took a trace of him and stored it inside the Transistor. This trace, we both think that traces are souls. My trace, my soul, is tied with it. When they tried to kill me, it teleported us to the edge of Cloudbank. I heard his voice and rushed to him, but he was speaking to me from the Transistor. His body was dead. I wanted answers, so I took the Transistor with me and headed back towards Cloudbank, More specifically, the Empty Set. It was where I performed all the time, where they tried to assassinate me. En route, I encountered robots that were called Process. They were apparently kept in check by the Transistor and when it chose me as its new master, they were unleashed upon Cloudbank. They were slowly converting the city into something horrific, in their image. I won't get into specifics, but suffice it to say that anyone they came across was destroyed, or nearly. As for my ability to move as I do, when I collect a new trace, I gain a new..." Red trailed off, attempting to describe it as accurately as possible. "…power, I guess would be the most accurate term. The traces that I've found were those whom were killed by the Process. I can use these abilities in any manner I wish, even upgrade an ability with others. This was three years ago, and I have spent most of that time fighting the Process. Today was to be the day I cleared out the last building, but something went wrong. There was a bomb. I threw up a shield to try to protect my city, but I was trapped inside with it, so I have no idea what happened. For all I know the Process could be rampaging out of control again and I'm not there to stop it." Red's voice rasped, as her voice box began to overheat from excessive use. Red clutched her neck. Summer looked confused at the action. Blue decided to speak for her.

"She lost her voice, when it happened. She had an artificial voice box put in, but it overheats if she talks too much. It isn't enough to support her singing career." Blue informed Summer. Sensing Summer's distrust towards his lover, Blue added. "She is the nicest, most benevolent person I know." Red's eyes were tearing up. "She would do anything to protect those she cared about."

"What's wrong?" Yang asked as she approached the two. Summer still looked skeptical, but she dropped the matter for the moment. She looked at Red for a moment, before bending down to eye level with Yang.

"Miss Red is still worn out from her accident, she simply didn't want to talk about it in front of you two." Summer lied easily. Yang glanced up at Red with a confused look on her face. Before they could press any further, however, a scream that sounded an awful lot like Ruby was heard in the distance. Red triggered Turn() instantly, an incident a year ago when the Process broke quarantine near one of Fairview's schools flashing through her mind. Summer and Yang hadn't even begun to turn their heads towards the noise. Red sprinted past them to where the training dummies were located. She saw a dark werewolf leaping at Ruby, whom was cowering away from it. Rage filled her veins. She almost accidentally triggered SuperUser, but she quickly reined in the feeling. She launched a fierce kick at the wolf, targeted at the head, and ended Turn(). Her body reacted instantly, rushing forward and acting out her orders. The kick connected with a loud, wet, crack, making the wolf fly backwards and impact a tree, nearly breaking it in half. Red placed herself between the wolf and Ruby. Mere moments later, Summer and Yang ran up to wrap the cowering child in a loving hug. Taking Summer's inaction as a queue to handle it herself, she slowly strode towards the lone wolf. It struggled to stand, clearly the impact had damaged something. It growled menacingly at her. Energy crackled along the Transistor. Red propelled the thrice stacked Breach() forward to the point where the wolf's head met its neck. The Shatter() lived up to its namesake and tore the head from the wolf's body, spewing meaty chunks everywhere. Both head and body landed several feet apart and began to sublimate into thick, black smoke. Red turned to look at the sobbing child.

"Is she okay?" Red whispered roughly, her voice box was still warm and tingling. Summer looked up from the frightened girl to Red.

"She will be. That was a heck of a scare." She squeezed Ruby tighter and picked her up bridal style. "Thank you, by the way." Red replied with a nod. She was going to avoid straining her voice any more for the day. Red could communicate with Blue mentally, but she preferred the verbal communication.

"We should get back, in case more show up." Blue added quickly. Summer led them back to their home, Red feeling guilty for the outing in the first place. " _It wasn't your fault Red. Just an accident._ "

" _It feels like my fault. We would have never been out there had it not been for me._ " She retorted mentally. She sat down on the bed she woke up in. Summer had taken Ruby upstairs to her bedroom and Yang went into the kitchen to eat dinner with her father. Red's thoughts raced a mile a minute. Was Cloudbank safe? Had that explosion wiped out the Process? Was she worrying over nothing? So many questions rushed through her mind, faster than she could even begin to answer them. Even Blue's normally calming words did nothing to help her. Red's fists unconsciously clenched. Tears threatened to burst from her eyes. She had to leave. She was nothing but trouble for this family. Placing Blue back into his holster, she made for the front door.

"Oh, I was just about to come get you," the familiar form of Yang called from a nearby doorway. "Dinner is ready and we, well, mom, wanted to know if you wanted to join us?" Her happy tone of voice didn't sound forced. Just as she was about to decline, Blue intervened.

"We'd love to join you for dinner." He spoke from behind her back. Forcing herself not to turn her head to glare at the luminescent sword, she smiled politely and nodded. Placing Blue down near the front doorway as punishment, she moved towards where Yang had poked her head out. The entire family was sitting at the table, Ruby included. She was smiling happily as she dug into a plate of spaghetti. Red breathed a sigh of relief that she hadn't been too traumatized by the incident, and took a seat between Summer and Tai. She felt comfortable enough to speak once more, her voice box had stopped tingling shortly after they arrived at Summer's home.

"Thank you for the offer, Miss Rose." Red said politely, trying to keep the strain on her voice down. If she still was distrustful of the User, she hid it beneath a façade of kindness.

"It's no trouble at all," Summer replied easily. "I wanted to thank you again for saving Ruby, earlier." Summer shared a look with Tai that spoke volumes. They had clearly talked, both about Red's powers and how quickly she jumped in to save Ruby. The aforementioned girl looked up from her food, mouth overflowing with noodles. She slurped the noodles down loudly. This drew a chastising look from her mother.

"Sorry mommy." Ruby said before Summer could even speak. Evidently this had happened before. Red twirled a small bit of the spaghetti on her fork and put it in her mouth. It was a nicely balanced meal. The tomato sauce didn't overpower the meat, the noodles were cooked perfectly, and the meat was just a bit firm. It was good. A small smile unconsciously found its way to her face as she moved her fork down for another bite.

"So, Red. Would you mind telling us a little bit about yourself?" Tai spoke up between bites of his dinner. Red figured that this was coming tonight. She regretted not ducking out sooner.

"Well, up until three years ago, I was a singer. I had an accident, that…" She trailed off, searching for the appropriate way to phrase it. "…damaged my vocal cords. I had to get an implant and it's not really conducive for singing anymore." She finished sadly. Ruby looked at Red, wonder sparkling in her eyes.

"Wow, I love music." Ruby smiled brightly at the User. "Umm, if it wouldn't hurt too much would you sing us something?" the child asked tentatively. Red felt her heart melt at the adorable sight. She couldn't help but agree.

"I suppose a few lines wouldn't be too much trouble." Red took a deep breath in preparation, Yang and Ruby looked on in wonder.

"~When you speak, I hear silence…~" Red's voice flowed out just as smoothly as it did before the Collapse. "~…every word, a defiance…~" The two children looked on in wonder, and even Summer and Taiyang were seemingly impressed with her performance. "~…I can hear, oh, I can hear…~" She felt a brush against her mind from Blue, encouraging her to continue. "~…think I'll go, where it suits me…~" Everyone had stopped eating at this point, now fully involved in listening to Red's velvety words. She felt her voice box begin to tingle. "~…moving out, to the Country…~" Blue further encouraged her via his silent urgings. Ruby and Yang were both staring at her in unabashed awe. "~…with everyone, oh, everyone…~" She pushed herself to get one more verse out. She needed this as much as they did. "~…before we all become one. ~" Her throat seized and forced her into a coughing fit. She took a drink of the water that was laid out for her. Tears raced down her cheeks from the pain. Taiyang moved to help her but she waved him off.

"I'm fine." She said quickly, her voice slightly hoarse. "Just pushed myself a little too hard." She looked down at her partially eaten dinner. "We should finish eating before it gets cold."

"That was very pretty, Miss Red." Ruby complimented, despite her worry for the User. Yang nodded in agreement. Even Summer agreed. The rest of their dinner passed without much other than small talk. Red wasn't asked any more questions and she retired to the room where she woke up in, having picked Blue back up along the way. Red lay with Blue next to her, neither of them speaking though Blue's silent question was the only think she was capable of thinking about. Would she stay, or would she slip off in the night? Despite not pressing the matter, Red felt the weight of Blue's judgment.

"Fine, I'll stay." She said roughly after she couldn't take it anymore. Perhaps it was the feeling of helplessness in the matter of her home, or the imagined blame she held for Ruby's near tragedy, but Red couldn't shake the urge that she had to train herself harder than she ever had before. She felt like there was some distant, looming enemy that she had in front of her. Perhaps it was the Grimm that worried her. She had done some research after their encounter and discovered that humans were on the brink of total extinction because of the Grimm. It was like the Collapse, but less urgent and more looming. The Collapse had been over just as suddenly as it started, the time between when she was nearly assassinated to the time she killed Royce Bracket being only about 15 hours. That same feeling as when she first discovered the extent of the damage to Cloudbank filled her mind. She couldn't just run away and hide. She had to get stronger. The people here needed her just as much, if not more than Cloudbank did three years ago. Without any clear way back to home, she had no other options.

"I agree." Blue chimed from his position near her. "You should get to sleep, Red. You've got a busy day tomorrow. I'll wake you up at 5 sharp, okay?" Red turned to look at her lover.

"Okay, Blue. Goodnight." She pulled him closer and let the hilt of his form rest against her forehead. "Love you." She whispered softly.

"Love you too, Red." He answered, but she didn't hear her. Red had already fallen asleep.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: I'm probably going to go with a once a week uploading schedule after this chapter, so you'll have a slightly longer wait between chapters to deal with.

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If her chrono was still accurate, then it was currently 5:01 AM. Blue had gently nudged her from her slumber, causing her to groan weakly.

"C'mon Red. It's time to start training." Blue informed her, despite it being her idea. She quietly slipped out of bed and put on her footwear. She decided to abscond the jacket in favor of more mobility and breathability. Her exercise today would be rigorous and the heavy leather jacket would only slow her down. The starting point of her exercises was stretching, but she figured it would be better to wait to get outside to do that. She stepped outside into the crisp air. A fog hung heavy in the air, reducing visibility to about 20 meters. Her stretches didn't take long and within minutes she was busy jogging down the dirt road, making sure to keep an eye on the route she ran so as to not get lost. Once she was a fair distance away from the house, she found a nice clearing in the forest just off of the road.

"This should be a good enough spot to train at." Red spoke aloud to Blue. She withdrew the Transistor from its cradle and held it with one hand.

"The most important thing we need to work on is your stamina. I think we should focus on controlling SuperUser today." Blue stated, his words Red couldn't refute. Her stamina sucked. The only reason she had come this far was because the Transistor did the majority of the work. Every time she used SuperUser outside of Turn() she exhausted herself within a minute. It heavily drew on her stamina. She fiercely stabbed Blue into the ground and sat cross legged. Making sure to breathe deeply, she focused on bringing the power of SuperUser active. Almost instantly, the Transistor dissolved away into the familiar neon blue particles and flowed into her chest. Electricity crackled lightly across her skin, imparting a tingling sensation as it passed. The lightning had never harmed her in all her use of it, so she wasn't worried. She felt herself leave the ground as her body slowly floated upward to come to a resting position about one meter off of the ground.

"Okay, now for the hard part." Red muttered to herself. She closed her eyes and maintained a steady breathing rhythm. The power flowed through her veins like pure heat. Not the damaging and destructive kind, but the warm and comforting kind. The chill in the air vanished as the power of SuperUser jumped across her skin.

Blue's voice entered her mind. " _One minute so far, you're doing great._ " His words of praise encouraged her. She kept the same, slow, deep breathing exercise together and she dare not open her eyes lest her concentration break. Time seemed to flow slowly, most likely due to the adrenaline rush that SuperUser always caused. Thoughts of her accomplishment made her heart beat faster in her chest and her breathing unconsciously increase its tempo. It took a good amount of her concentration to steady both again.

" _Two minutes_ " Blue informed her. This was the longest she had maintained SuperUser in or out of combat. Despite the feeling of giddiness, she maintained her slow steady rhythm. It was broken when Blue nudged her extra hard. Her eyes flew open in time to see a large black bear emerge from the edge of the forest, masked exactly like the wolf had been. She smirked, the creature not knowing that it had wandered to its death. Her feet touched the ground lightly, causing the electricity to begin jumping to it, singing the ground wherever it hit. The bear roared a challenge. She extended her hand and attacked. The lightning that had pooled around her form leapt to her arm, then hand, then projected in a neon blue beam of pure destructive energy. The bear stood no chance and was run clean through by the beam, dying instantly. Curiously, the bear also began to sublimate like wolf had. She would make a point of it to investigate this when she had the chance. The blast of energy she killed the bear with depleted the remaining duration of her SuperUser. Blue reappeared where she had stabbed him into the ground. Her breathing was even tempered and she hardly felt tired at all. Perhaps there was something to this slow and methodical approach to training. Granted she never really had the option before where the Process were concerned. They spread like a virus and she couldn't afford to be inattentive anywhere near them. Her thoughts roamed once more to Cloudbank. She had to hope that they were okay, and that the Process had been eradicated in the explosion. Every other line of thinking was bad and she didn't want to go down that road. She cleared her mind and gripped the Transistor in a two-handed grip. With a brief extension of her will, Blue shifted from a Zweihander to a long-bladed halberd.

"This is a new one." Blue noted dryly. She smirked at him.

"It has more reach than the axe." She gave it a test swing and felt the weight was appropriately balanced. "Better balance, too. The weight is more evenly distributed." She twirled it between her fingertips. It felt very balanced. She liked it immediately. With a flourish, she slashed outward, simultaneously projecting a Crash(). The ground erupted where the energy struck into particulate dust and rocks. Electricity crackled along the length of her polearm. She thrust forward, sending a Breach() through a tree deeper into the forest. The Breach() split the tree in half, continuing deeper into the forest before eventually fizzling out about fifty meters downrange, taking two more trees down in the process. She kept using her functions in cycle. First a Crash() to stun an imaginary target. Then a Breach() to deal damage. Then she tried a Spark(), delighting in the way that the forest reflected the light around her training area. She continued this routine until she finished it with a Cull(). The earth split in two for about a dozen meters, sending dirt and plant debris cascading in the air around her. Not wanting to get overly dirty, she projected a shield using the passive form of Bounce(). A bright green shield appeared overhead, deflecting dirt off of it and keeping her relatively clean. As if bidden by her light show, a shadow briefly eclipsed the slowly rising sun. She looked up and spotted a stubby aircraft headed in the direction of Summer's house. Her chrono read 7:30. A glance to the left revealed the deep orange colored sky that signaled a sunrise. She reasoned that she could take a short break. The Transistor transformed back into the zweihander and she placed it into the holster on her back.

"Better go see what's up. Could be about us." She told Blue before taking off in a moderate jog. Her pace brought her back to Summer's house just before 8:00. The stubby aircraft was parked in a small clearing behind and to the right of the house. It seemed abandoned, so she figured the pilot was inside. Her stomach rumbled softly and she resolved to fight a source of income before the end of the day. With her skills she could at the very least take some bounty hunting missions. She had seen several of them pinned to the refrigerator during dinner yesterday, so she figured she could head to the nearest town and see what she could do. Opening the door, she spotted a sharply dressed blonde woman speaking with Taiyang. She paced forward tentatively and before long the woman noticed her.

"This is your guest I take it?" She spoke in a polite tone, fitting of someone dressed as a school teacher. Red nodded once.

"Yes. I was out doing some early morning training exercises." She informed the two. In the other room she could hear Yang and Summer talking about something she couldn't quite make out. Tai was holding a large binder filled with papers.

"Summer contacted me yesterday and told me that she had found someone on the beach, laying unconscious. I presume that you are the person that she found." The blonde woman articulated before turning back to Taiyang. "You'll find all of the pertinent information about the curriculum at Signal in that binder.

"Glyn?" A voice called from the other room. Summer peeked around the corner and her expression immediately grew brighter upon seeing the blonde woman. "I'm happy that you came out personally Glyn." Summer wrapped 'Glyn' in a bear hug, to which the blonde was clearly not happy about.

"It's good to see you too, Sum." Glyn awkwardly patted Summer on the back, making her release her grip as she remembered whom was among the present company. She coughed awkwardly and stepped away from the clearly uncomfortable blonde. Tai suppressed a grin, which Red couldn't disagree with him. "As you may have heard," Now addressing Red. "My name is Glynda." Red nodded in acknowledgment.

"I'm Red." The User replied. Summer looked at her, noting the lack of a jacket and a layer of sweat on her body. "I wanted to ask if I could get directions to the nearest town. I wanted to see about making some money for supplies." Red questioned Taiyang. Summer was evidently still distrustful of Red, and stepped forward to answer for Tai.

"I can show you." Tai looked less than pleased at her interruption, but said nothing. Red acknowledged her offer with a nod. "I've been meaning to pick up some more Dust for Sora anyway." Summer grabbed a white hooded cloak from the rack next to the door and tied it to her.

"I have to finalize lesson plans with the staff over at Signal, so that's where I'll be for most of the day. After I am finished we can have that discussion you wanted, Summer." Glynda informed the ravenette. "Tai, you can review those lesson plans at your leisure. Classes start on the first of the month. Staff are expected to show up a week earlier to begin preparations for the year." Tai began to peruse the binder full of paperwork as Glynda stepped past Summer and Red to exit the house. Summer clipped a pair of white painted metal tomahawks to her waist before following Glynda out of the house.

"Lead on, then." Red gestured towards the road and the two began walking. From behind them, the slow-building whir of the aircraft's engines could be heard. Within thirty seconds, it faded to nothing, leaving the two women alone on their walk. Red couldn't shake a feeling of nervousness around the other woman. She wondered why despite Summer never being overly hostile. Red was met with distrust when she first revealed herself to the remaining populace of Cloudbank and the world beyond. There were a couple times when there were almost open hostilities, but she managed to either discredit the ones who blamed her, or they were silenced by the majority.

Summer's voice started Red out of her thoughts. "So, when you said you wanted to get supplies, what were you planning on getting?" Red turned to look at the other woman, whom hadn't looked back to ask her question.

"I was planning on picking up food, a water canteen, some books about information in your world, and some items to reinforce my jacket with." Red listed off. The last item was more for experimentation than any true reinforcing. She wanted to see if she could improve the armor of her outfit. Her jacket has been sufficient so far, but it could always be better. "I had planned on seeing about any bounties that I could do, if nothing else. I don't know of anything else. I've been a singer all of my life, up until the Collapse." She elaborated. Summer looked back at the User, a sympathetic look on her face.

"That's the second time I've heard you mention that." She started. "What's the Collapse?"

"It was shortly after the attempted assassination on me." Red began. "The Process that were under control of the Transistor got loose and began to convert the city into…" She trailed off. "More of them, I guess would be the best way to describe it. It killed any person that they came across and began to convert them as well. If one of them had a strong enough Trace, they were warped into a twisted version of themselves that served the Process. By the end of it, nearly 80% of the entire city had been converted and over 20 million people were dead or missing." Red sighed sadly. "Thankfully I was able to stop it and put the Process under quarantine. I spent the last three years periodically burning the Process from the city. One of my friends, Sybil, was manipulated into working with the ones responsible for the assassination, and subsequent massacre. I was forced to kill her after she had been processed." Summer was shocked by the revelation.

"20 million people? That's insane." Summer stated in disbelief. "And that was just in one city?" She inquired.

Red nodded in reply. "I think the total number of missing or dead was above two billion all across the world. Cloudbank was the largest city, and it was among the hardest hit. The Process needed time to spread through the system that ran our city. Thankfully, about halfway through the Collapse, the Process decided to focus their efforts on me."

"You were _thankful_ to have something capable of killing two billion people focus their attention on you?" Summer asked incredulously. Red couldn't help but smile.

"Better me than them. I was more capable than anyone on the planet to take down the Process. We didn't have a military. We didn't need one. Society's greatest fears were what color the sky was going to be that day, or whether you wanted it to be raining, snowing, or sunny." Red's voice turned bitter. The upper echelons of Cloudbank were the whole reason the Collapse happened in the first place. So stringent on anything that threatened their utopia that they sent assassins after her and manipulated her friends. She had made considerable progress, but she feared that with her disappearance things would devolve back to the way they were. If they were even still alive and the Process hadn't reemerged. She purged the dark thoughts from her mind and gave a short laugh.

"What's funny?" Summer asked as a town began to draw closer in the distance. Red checked her chrono and they had been walking for nearly half an hour.

"Just thinking things that I shouldn't be." She said evasively. Summer was either satisfied with her answer, which Red doubted, or she decided to drop the matter for the moment. The duo approached the tall walled city, a sign hanging from it read 'Welcome to Hallow'. The gate shifted open to reveal a slightly portly elderly man with a dark metallic battle axe on his back. His bushy eyebrows seemed to cover his eyes and a moustache that looked more at home in a nest than on someone's face covered his mouth.

"Miss Rose, a pleasure meeting you here." He boomed in an overly enthusiastic voice. "I was just in the area picking up spare ammo for Ba'al here." He jabbed a thumb at his axe gun hybrid.

"Peter," Summer replied politely. "I was just in town picking up some Dust for Sora. Miss Red here is checking out the bounty board." Despite not making any indication of movement, Red knew that Peter was now looking at her. In a flash, he was right next to her, offering a handshake.

"It is a pleasure to meet such a beautiful woman like yourself, Miss Red." Red tentatively extended a hand to the exuberant man. He squeezed hard, and nearly shook her arm from its socket. Thankfully, he seemed to sense her discomfort and let go, returning the offending hand to the brown leather satchel on his waist. "Well I must be off. The new year starts soon and I have to have enough specimens to last the first semester!" He strode past the two women and straight into the forest. Red flexed her hand, trying to relieve the pain, while Summer stood by with a bemused expression.

"Let's just go," Red said, slightly irritated at the other woman whom had thrown her under the bus. This time, Summer couldn't help but let out a short chuckle at Red's expense.

"I'm sorry, I just couldn't help it." Summer halfheartedly apologized, the occasional short laugh still eking out despite her attempts to conceal it.

Red rounded on the other woman. "I get it, you don't trust me. But look," She huffed irritably. "I have done absolutely nothing to earn your distrust other than simply existing. So please, just lay off and give me a chance." Red had dealt with many of her fans, even some who proved more unruly than others, but she never really had anyone she could call a friend. Her friendship with Sybil was suspect in hindsight and despite the fact that she helped them destroy the Camerata, she doubted that she ever was truly a friend to her. The one person she had met in her entire life that could possibly be a friend was doing absolutely nothing to earn that friendship.

"Fine, I'll give you a chance." Summer ceded. "Tell you what, why don't I go with you on one of your bounties so I can get a feel for how you do things. Is that alright?" This time, it was Red's turn to smirk.

"I'd already planned on it." She turned back towards the town and peered around, looking for anything that resembled a bounty board. She eventually spotted what looked like a notice board in the center of a rounded dirt road, about a hundred feet from the front gate where they were. The gate guards shut the entrance behind them once they had moved out of the way. She came upon the board and searched for the bounties section. Summer pointed at the top right corner, where there was a cyan colored display with various bounties on them. They ranged from something called 'search and destroy' which she presumed to be you would hunt down Grimm and kill them, to 'escort', which was tagging along with a convoy moving either supplies or people and protecting them from the Grimm. She had no idea how to actually take a bounty, so she reluctantly looked to Summer to help. She rolled her eyes and pulled a small grey box from her pocket. Upon inserting the box into the base of the display, a musical chime sounded from the machine. A picture of Summer appeared in the top right corner of the display.

"There, now any mission you take will go to my Scroll. I'll split the reward with you when we turn them back in to the hub here." Upon noting Red's skeptical look, she added. "Well you're crazy if you think I'm just gonna sit back and watch you have all the fun." She smirked and began walking away. "When you have the missions you want, come find me. I'll be at a shop called Dust Surplus. It's just two blocks up the road and your first right." She quickly strode down the road and eventually disappeared from view. Red turned her attention back to the board and selected a few missions labeled search and destroy. The missions were all relatively close to the point that represented the city on the map, so she was satisfied. She ejected the Scroll from the machine and pocketed it. Following Summer's instructions, she made her way down the road and took the first right after two blocks. Despite being a relatively rural city, it was fairly large. Eventually, she came across a hand painted sign with the words 'Dust Surplus' scripted on it in bright yellow paint. Inside, she could see Summer talking with a young, almost preteen kid.

"Three of the burn grade 6 crystals ought to round out the load." Summer had a variety of different colored crystals and sand filled bottles in front of her. The small satchel she was carrying was laying on the counter, its contents barely contained as she fiddled with a plastic card of some kind. As if sensing her arrival, Summer turned to greet the User. "I'm just finishing up here, then we can go." She received the plastic card back from the brunette shopkeeper. Red handed the Scroll back to Summer, before following her outside.

"I picked all search and destroy missions that were near this town," Red explained, figuring that these kinds of missions would involve more walking than fighting. Summer opened her Scroll to reveal an identical display to the one that the bounty board used.

"These are A grade missions, recommended for entire teams of Huntsmen academy graduates." She stated dryly. "Good thing that I'm an S Rank Huntress," Summer closed the device and placed it back into the nearly bulging leather satchel. "C'mon, the furthest one is about an hour's walk out of the south gate. We'll work our way back, clearing the way as we make our way back to Hallow" Summer started down a sparsely populated road that lead back to the wall. "First thing we're doing when we get the Lien from these missions is getting you a Scroll. I don't want Ozpin to think I'm breaking regulation by taking missions during my vacation time." Red acknowledged the request with a hum and fell in stride behind the Huntress. They exited the town and started down the road without further interruptions. The path south was winding and tire tracks liberally coated the width of it. Most of them looked to be heavy industrial or shipping vehicles.

"Back there, you said that you were an S rank huntress. What does that mean?" Red inquired, wanting to break up the heavy silence.

"An S Rank Huntsmen or Huntress is a veteran that has served in the field for at least ten years after graduating from an academy. The ranks go up to double S, which only hunters that have fought Grimm for decades can acquire. Missions, however, can go up to four S, which means that an entire team of veteran Hunters has to be sent to deal with whatever problem it is. Most missions of that tier take place in or near the Grimmlands and usually only involve search and destroy types that have an ancient Grimm as the target." Summer reviewed the missions on her Scroll. These are all A grade missions, which are given out to second and third year secondary academy students."

"So you said that I rate about equal with an academy graduate. Would that make me an A rank?" Red inquired honestly. Summer pondered her question for a moment before replying.

"Yes and no. Yes because your skills could easily eclipse a graduate, but your lack of Aura protecting you is a mark against that." Summer unclipped the twin tomahawks from her waist and took a deep breath. They must be nearing the area where the first mission is.

"One of my abilities can give me a shield." Red whispered, also taking her weapon out and holding it in a combat stance. She shifted it to the halberd weapon she practiced with earlier in the day.

"That's new. Your weapon can transform." Summer knelt down behind a bush that oversaw a clearing.

"I favor the Zweihander, but this has more reach. I've often needed something longer to take on the tougher forms of Process." Red elaborated. In the clearing was a group of sleeping bears.

"Okay, there's three of the Ursai we're supposed to kill. The other two are probably Majors, so they might be out patrolling the area. It looks like they left the kids at home." Summer glanced back at the User.

"Kids?" Red asked hesitantly. Summer rolled her eyes.

"Not in the literal sense. Grimm can't reproduce. These are just younger Ursai. They typically form small packs with larger ones for protection until they're more grown. Your average first year student can take down one of these things." Summer shifted, preparing to enter combat. "This won't take long, then we can hunt down the other two and move on." Her body vibrated for a brief moment before she disappeared into a flurry of white rose petals. From the clearing, one of the Ursai roared in pain as it suddenly found Summer embedding her tomahawk in its neck. Not wanting to be left out, Red activated Turn(). She leapt over the small bush and ran towards the far Ursa. It had just started to turn before Red entered the heightened awareness that the Transistor afforded her. She combined an overhead swing with a Breach(Load()) and hit execute. Time returned to normal speed and she sprinted in a mind blurringly fast pace towards the far Ursai. The Transistor executed her Function and sent the Ursa flying away, now rendered into little more than rapidly sublimating red paste and bones. Summer simultaneously finished off the Ursa she had targeted with a gust of razor sharp wind. The Ursa's head fell from its body and promptly began to sublimate. The final Ursa, noting that it was surrounded, tried to turn tail and head into the forest. Summer's tomahawk lashed out and nailed it in the back of the head, the chain that was attached to her wrist holding the massive creature in place. Taking this as her queue, Red charged the beast and ended its life with a brutal upswing of her weapon, decapitating the Ursa.

"Where did the third one go?" Summer inquired, noting the lack of the body. Red gave a small laugh.

She pointed in a direction. "Over there." Another direction. "Over there." She pointed up in the branches of a tree. "I think some of it is probably up there too." Summer couldn't keep the smirk off of her face at Red's joke.

"Okay, I admit." Summer raised her hands in surrender, the chain of the left tomahawk still embedded inside the sublimating Ursa extending towards it. "That was funny." With a flick of her wrist, the chain rapidly began to retract inside the bracer on her arm until the tomahawk was firmly in her grasp once more. A branch cracking from deeper in the forest had both women immediately on edge. Summer depressed a button on her right weapon. The edge of the blade began glowing an icy blue.

Within moments, an Ursa much larger than the three that the two women had killed broke the cover of the trees. Summer slashed at it with her weapon, projecting a thin line of ice. It crashed into the Ursa, causing thin lacerations where it hit. The Ursa roared in pain, but didn't slow very much. Summer leapt upward at the same time Red aligned her weapon with the beast. She thrust forward while using Purge(), catching the Ursa on the side of its head. Its bone mask began to split and crack where her strike hit home, but the beast's mask made the strike hit awkwardly and deflected her strike. The Ursa took a swing at Red, much faster than she was expecting. The paw collided with the tip of her weapon as she leapt backwards, wrenching it from her grasp and sending it careening into the trees. Seeing Blue so casually flung from her grasp set her off. The power of SuperUser triggered on reflex. She thrust her hand forward, projecting a crackling beam of energy at the surprised bear. The beam hit the Ursa in the same spot that her Purge() had begun to take effect on its mask. It roared in pain and was tossed backwards as easily as Blue had been. The Kill() pinned the beast up against a large tree. Within seconds, it died. Red breathed a sigh of relief and let SuperUser drop. Feeling the connection with the Transistor reestablish in the forest, she held out her hand and willed the weapon to come to her. It returned, in its zweihander form. Red's breathing slowed as she relaxed from her inadvertent use of her most powerful ability.

"What the _fuck_ was that?" Summer yelled, wide eyed from nearby. Her posture spoke volumes as to what she thought about Red's power.

"That's one of my powers. It's called SuperUser." Red placed Blue back in his holster on her back, seeing no immediate threat. "I guess the best way to describe it would be that I merge with my weapon, gaining all of its abilities and power as a result. I first discovered from the function that Sybil gave me. At the time, my knowledge of the Transistor and how it worked had been so minuscule that I had no idea how to manually trigger it. I discovered how to do that about a year ago. In that time, I learned that I can keep access to that power for barely a minute without totally exhausting myself. It puts a tremendous strain on my body. I was trying to train with it this morning, but I was interrupted by one of those." Red gestured to the sublimating Ursa. "It fared worse than this one did."

"I haven't seen power like that in anything other than a Maiden." Summer spoke with awe before realizing her mistake. She hastily looked away and began to approach the area where the Ursa exited the forest. Red noticed that something was up with the other woman.

"What's a Maiden? You say that like it's something important." Red followed the Huntress into the forest, following the Ursa's path of destruction. Summer sighed explosively, before coming to a stop about ten meters into the forest.

"I shouldn't have said anything, it's a really long story that I'm not supposed to talk about." Summer said, clearly trying to steer the topic of conversation away from the Maidens. Red smirked inwardly.

"Fine, I can wait. We still have to have that talk with that Glynda woman later today." Red delighted in the way that Summer's eyes widened in fright.

"Oh, Lord. She's gonna kill me." Summer hid her face behind her hand. Red walked over to the other woman and placed a placating hand on her shoulder.

"Relax, if it's that important to you, I'll drop it until after Glynda leaves." Red gave a small smile.

Blue decided to speak up at that point. "If you ladies are done, I believe that we have an unwanted guess approaching us." We rounded on the clearing and saw the final Ursa sniffing around.

"Let me handle it." Red started to step forward, but was stopped by Summer.

"Can you do that SuperUser thing again?" She asked tentatively, to which Red replied with a nod.

"I don't really feel that drained. I'll give it a shot." She stepped forward and stabbed Blue into the ground. Taking a deep breath, she triggered SuperUser again. Red felt the power envelop her immediately. Electricity danced across her skin, the Transistor completely faded from view as they became one. Her body began to hover above the ground as the power took hold. She looked back at a flabbergasted Summer. "It's a shocking experience, I know." Red smirked as she turned back towards the Ursa and moved towards it. Moving while in SuperUser was little more than willing your body to move in a certain direction. Like how you don't have to tell your body each individual muscle movement when you're walking. It just does it automatically. The Ursa noticed her immediately and bellowed a challenging roar. It rushed forward, hoping to catch her off guard. She moved skyward, and found herself hovering over the Ursa. It only had a moment to look upward at her before she acted. The brilliant blue beam of crackling electricity impacted the Ursa for the force of a cannon blast, flattening it against the ground immediately. She roared with the effort of using SuperUser twice in such a short period of time. It ended seconds after she began, Red crashing to the ground a few meters from the beast. Despite it all, the Ursa was still not dead. It roared in pain and struggled to stand, but the damage had already been done. Kill() was already disintegrating the Ursa. Summer ran over to where Red had collapsed. The beast had finally disintegrated completely, leaving the two women alone in the clearing.

"Are you okay?" Summer asked worriedly. Red was breathing heavily, holding herself above the ground on her hands and knees.

The User waved her off. "I'll be fine, just need to catch my breath. I haven't ever used that twice in succession so quickly." Red checked her chrono. It read 12:03, an hour after they had left the city.

"By the way, that pun was perfect." Summer grinned. Red laughed heartily. With their first mission done, the duo left the clearing and continued towards the second.

It was nearly four hours later by the time they returned to Hallow, entering via the north gate. Most of Red's kills were taken in Turn() and amounted to a not inconsiderable amount. Seventeen Beowolves, as she learned they were called, half a dozen more Ursai, and even a Deathstalker which had surprised Red after she had accidentally stepped on its nest. It was an adolescent, thankfully. The size of a sedan rather than a small house. It met its end with Cull(Purge(Void())), the massive scorpion twitching as if electrocuted while it dissolved from the effects of Purge(). Red was utterly exhausted, both physically and mentally. She had never used Turn() so much in one day, save for during the Collapse. It proved that she had been getting soft, despite her training. The day after the collapse she vowed she would never be defenseless and weak ever again. It was time to up her training regimen to the extreme. The two arrived at the bounty board, Summer inserted both her scroll, and a black Lien card that she picked up for Red from the local bank. Supposedly it worked on a debit system, in which money was kept in an account and accessed via using the card at stores.

"Well, you sure cleaned up today. Over 3000 Lien." Summer held the card out for Red, who was reluctant to take it. Summer was confused at her indecision. "C'mon take it, you earned it."

"We both earned it." Red stated, pushing the card back at the Huntress. "You should at least take half of it. You did just as much, if not more than me, out there." Summer smiled at the other woman, impressed with her generosity.

"I can't take it. I'm on vacation. Ozpin would kill me if he knew that I was running jobs in my off time." Summer thrust the card forward once more, and Red hesitantly accepted it. "You can buy us lunch if you're that insistent that I should take something." Red's stomach grumbled eagerly at the thought of food. "I know a great sandwich shop that we can hit up." Red trailed along eagerly, the faint smell of something delicious urging her along.

* * *

A/N: Yes, I know I'm taking creative license with a lot of things, but until we learn more about the RWBY universe there really isn't much we can do except fill in with headcanon. To expand on Summer's weapons: they're tomahawks with a dust cartridge slot in the back of the handle for either crystalline dust or a crystal, and a button just below the rear half of the blade section of the weapon to imbue the blade with the inserted dust effect. As of this story, Summer has wind dust in the left hand weapon and ice dust in the right hand. They're attached to a bracer on her wrist via a chain or can be detached for storing it on her waist. She can activate the chain like a fishing reel, by either depressing a button, allowing the chain to expand freely, or retract quickly.


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: I know I said that it would be a week, but I got caught up writing and before I knew it I had 8k words written. After some trimming, this is the finished product. Hope you enjoy it.

* * *

Lunch was heavenly. The place they went to did indeed serve flatbread pizza and Red ordered one with everything on it. The pizza was positively heaping with toppings and Red's mouth watered at the sight. Junction Jan's closed down after the Collapse, Jan among those who were missing. She missed the sprightly young woman and her almost supernatural ability to predict was Red was going to order. Red ate nearly the entire pizza, and loved every moment of it. She leaned back in the chair with a satisfied sigh. The lone piece of pizza remaining on her plate tempted her, despite being full. She decided to wait and save it for later. Her chrono read 4:47 PM, almost twelve hours since she had woken up.

"We should probably head home, Summer." Red said, folding up the box that the pizza came in and placing it in the bag that she bought to hold her things. Before they hit up the restaurant, Red stopped by an armorer and picked up a water canteen, some armored weave cloth, her own personal Scroll, and a sheet of Aura-redundant metal with which she would fashion a new holster for Blue. Her old one was simply just leather. She had replaced it dozens of times in the last three years. She positively beamed at the thought of upgrading her gear.

"Glynda should be waiting for us." Summer stated as she left two yellow colored Lien cards on the table.

" _What do you think that woman Glynda wants to talk with us about?_ " Blue asked mentally. Red frowned. Obviously, they would be talking about her origins. The only question was, would she tell her about _everything_? They began the trek home, the gate swinging open wide for the two women.

" _I'm more than willing to spill all the beans, if it means keeping us safe._ " Red sent back. They didn't seem like the sinister type. She had seen many holovids back in the day of aliens being experimented on by governing bodies, and other things of that grotesque nature. No matter what happened, they would be together. She would never let them take Blue from her.

"When we talk with Glynda, It's just a talk, right? No dark secrets waiting to spring up on me?" Red asked half-jokingly. Summer rolled her eyes.

"Maybe if you were in Atlas, but not here. Oz has a good head on his shoulders. That's Glynda's boss. He's a bit cryptic, but he's always more than fair in his dealings. He more than likely already knows you're here too." Summer huffed. "I'd say that they had a thing together, but Oz is too cold for that." They had been walking for about twenty minutes. The sun disappeared behind the trees just as the house came into view. The same aircraft that was there this morning was parked in the same spot. Taiyang was just coming out the door, accompanied by Glynda. The two noticed the returning duo immediately.

"I was beginning to wonder if you had gotten lost." Glynda chided. She stared the two down with an intense look, Summer seemed unaffected by the look and Red was too confused to be affected.

"Got caught up in shopping." Summed lied easily, though it was seen through immediately by Glynda.

"Oz called me, saying you had taken some missions from Hallow's bounty board. You know very well you should be resting. Having your entire ribcage broken by a Goliath isn't something that heals quickly. It's only been two weeks." Glynda's criticism hit home with Red. She felt responsible.

"Ma'am, it's my fault. I didn't have a Scroll, so Summer offered me hers. I did practically all the work anyway. Summer mostly stayed behind and watched in case I got overwhelmed." Red's words seemed to have an effect on the woman, as she lessened her gaze.

"Very well, I'll let it slide just this once." Glynda turned back towards Tai. "I suppose we'll be having that dinner after all, Tai." Glynda walked back inside, leaving the three of them standing by the door awkwardly.

"You took a mission without telling me?" Tai's voice was tinged with worry. "Sum you only just got back from the hospital." A frown stretched across his face.

"I may have killed some Grimm today, but they were only A grade missions. I just wanted to get a feel for how our guest fights." Summer leaned closer to Tai, whispering something indiscernible to Red. Tai's eyes widened in surprise, before looking at Red warily. Red walked past the two and headed to her room. The last piece of pizza got eaten before she set Blue down next to the night stand.

"Hey, what if I wanted that piece?" Blue asked jokingly, making Red laugh the first honest laugh she had since finding herself on Remnant.

"I would if I could, Blue." Red stuffed the crust into her mouth, the lukewarm pizza still as delicious as when it was piping hot. "Buh is jus so guud" her words were garbled by the pizza. She swallowed the last bit of the pizza and reclined against the wall with a sigh. "We have to go back there tomorrow." She began to unpack, placing the Scroll on the night stand and slipping the cloth into a drawer in the dresser. Everything had been empty when she inspected the room, so she presumed that it was some sort of guest room. Red took a swig from her canteen and placed it beside her Scroll.

"You know how to work that thing?" Blue asked as she picked up the Scroll and slid it open as she had seen Summer do. Almost immediately, a login screen appeared. She doubted her old username and password for Cloudbank's OVC systems even worked here, so she hit the 'register' button. The screen changed to one that listed off basic personal information. She filled out the information as honestly as she could, save for date of birth and place of birth. She noted that the current date read 6/26/67. It was roughly three years behind Emitya's current calendar. She noted dryly that it was the same date as when the Collapse took place. She entered her real birthday, subtracting three years for the difference. and selected Patch as her place of birth. Any semantics with the actual information could be sorted out later. The device then prompted her for a picture that she would use to interact with the Extranet population. She hummed in thought before she got a great idea.

She placed Blue leaning against the wall. "Smile, Blue." She captured the façade of the Transistor and saved that as her picture. The setup menu was finally over and she had access to the Extranet. There was also a function that displayed her Aura levels. Out of curiosity, she checked hers. Not surprising in the least, was the N/A marker where her Aura would be displayed. A knock on her door alerted her. "Come in." She closed her Scroll and placed it on the night stand.

"Dinner is done, if you want to come eat. Summer told me you had a large lunch, so you can feel free to decline. Glynda wanted to talk with you." Taiyang's brusque voice came from the partially opened doorway. Red instinctively grabbed Blue and placed him in her tattered holster. The fight with the Grimm today had done a number on it.

"I'll be right there." Red replied as she got up from the bed. She exited her room and made her way to the kitchen. Before entering, she placed Blue in the same spot she had yesterday. She entered the kitchen and noticed Tai at the head of the table, with Glynda and Summer on either side of him. She looked around, noting the distinct absence of Ruby and Yang.

"The kids are at a friend's house having a sleep over." Tai added when she saw her wandering stare. Red took a seat next to Summer and across from Glynda. The meal of choice this time was a rice based mix with chunks of what looked like beef, and a veritable rainbow of vegetables.

"Good to meet you officially, Red." Glynda nodded courteously, to which red responded in kind. The group ate politely and silently for about five or so minutes, before Glynda made the first move.

"So, Summer tells me that you're capable of some incredible feats, despite having no Aura." She managed to catch Red between bites, something that was obviously planned.

"She hasn't told you specifics?" Red countered. Glynda managed to recover easily, though.

"She only told me about your battles today. Including the part where she let one of our most closely guarded secrets slip." Glynda glared at the ravenette, whom hid her shame by taking a large forkful of food into her mouth. "Anyway, she gave me a basic rundown of what you're capable of, though we only got a short explanation as to where you came from. She said you're not from Remnant, which is something that Tai backed up. Would you mind elaborating for me?" Red took a deep breath and gave Glynda the shortened version of the Collapse and events thereafter, which was still quite long and had her voice box warming by the time she was done.

"Let me introduce you to a very dear friend of mine." Red said cryptically as she mentally levitated the Transistor into the room through the hallway. She gripped the handle and placed it into the chair on her right. "This," she gestured to the sword. "Is Blue. Say hello Blue."

"Hello everyone, it's nice to finally meet you all." Blue spoke, giving Glynda quite a shock. "So, is everything all set in here?" He asked the blonde, whom had quickly recovered from her open display of disbelief. Everyone had mostly finished eating by this point, so Glynda's next question didn't come as much of a surprise.

"Would you mind demonstrating the power Miss Rose told us about?" Glynda asked, placing her fork down on her plate and standing up.

"It would be my pleasure." Red placed the Transistor back into its holster, grabbed her jacket, and followed Summer outside. She directed the group towards a clearing, about 100 meters away from the house and the airplane. They arrived in less than half a minute. Red stabbed the sword into the ground and began the breathing exercises that she did this morning. "You may wish to move back a bit." Red warned the group. Once everyone was in position, she triggered SuperUser. Blue dissolved to particles and the familiar electricity appeared. She kept her eyes open this time so as to gauge the reactions of the three. Summer, was indifferent, but still in awe at seeing this kind of power for the third time. Tai felt suffocated by the power, like it wanted to overwhelm everything. Glynda almost immediately understood Summer's claim of Red's powers being like that of a Maiden. The sheer volume that her realized power encompassed was staggering.

" _One minute_ " her lover's voice whispered in her mind. She decided that since there were no appropriate test targets for her, she would use an area effect Kill() instead.

"I hope you're not overly fond of the foliage in this area," Red joked from her position hovering slightly above the ground. With a battle cry, she triggered the ultimate ability of the Transistor. The electricity that had been crackling dangerously across her skin now erupted in a massive explosion. The power swirled around her in about a ten-meter radius, the dome of energy was nearly opaque. All that could be perceived from within was Red's brightly glowing eyes. Like a lightning strike, as quickly as it came the dome disappeared. Red was still hovering just a foot above the ground, the electricity leaping across her skin less prevalent than it had been upon first activation, but still present nonetheless.

" _Red, you've still got juice left._ " Red looked at her hand and saw the arcs of electricity flowing across her skin. The fact that she could use Kill() and still have energy left from SuperUser was a testament to how hard she had worked today. The ground beneath her was charred, the grass having been burned away. Even the soil was now two entire feet lower than it had been when she started. She manually canceled SuperUser and let Blue fall into her waiting hand. She stepped out of the crater and over to the dumbfounded trio.

"Okay, I admit." Red looked back at the crater sheepishly. "I may have overdone it a bit."

"I can see how you can make that comparison, Summer." Glynda started, still not completely recovered from the shock of what just happened. She coughed into her hand and looked in the direction of the sun as it retreated below the horizon. "Well, it's getting late," Glynda checked a chrono on her wrist. "I'll tell Ozpin that you two said hello." Summer and Taiyang nodded once in reply. "It was a pleasure to meet you, Red." With that, Glynda walked away towards her ship.

Summer turned to Tai. "You know, the kids are gonna be gone until tomorrow afternoon…" Summer started, leaning right up against Tai and giving him a knowing look. Red, knowing exactly what that look implied having given it to Blue many times herself, decided to make herself scarce and headed deeper into the forest away from the house. Her Scroll in the breast pocket of the leather jacket beeped. Pulling it out, she saw that her messaging service had sent her a notification. It stated that her lien card had been successfully linked to an account and she could now take jobs via the bounty board. Sighing in relief, she decided to climb into a tree and play a few of the downloadable games that she had found. She leapt upwards and landed on the lowest hanging branch of a tree. She lay Blue across her lap as she settled into a comfortable position.

"You're getting so much stronger Red. It's amazing." Blue spoke as she started up a puzzle game that involved moving pieces one at a time to complete a picture. The first one she started was of a large tree with a swing underneath it.

"It just shows how lazy I had gotten over the last three years." Red countered. "I had been content to relax and live the easy life. Sure, I may have gotten a little stronger today, but look at how harsh this world is compared to Emitya. It's like this world is in a perpetual Collapse." Red finished the first puzzle easily, as it was only a 5 by 5. The next one a view of a beach, and was a 10 by 10.

"Yeah, these Grimm are no pushovers. But you're strong Red, whether or not you think you're lazy." Blue's words always found home in a place deep inside Red. She smiled lovingly at him, thinking that if he were alive he'd be doing the same thing. Red glanced at the chrono in the corner of the Scroll. It was 7:12, about fifteen minutes after she had left the lovebirds alone. Her heart panged with sorrow, knowing that she would never again know the creature comforts of having the body of the person that you loved cuddled next to you. A warmth enveloped her mind, and her despair faded away.

"I'll always be here for you, Red." Blue whispered. "I love you." Red smiled tearfully him.

"Love you too, big guy." Red closed the Scroll, the game forgotten, and stared up at the steadily rising broken moon. Were she a poet, she would make a reference about how the moon represented her love. She closed her eyes, content to just rest for a moment. Before she knew it, she had fallen asleep.

She was roused from her slumber by a shrill ringing noise. Groggily, Red checked the source of the terrible sound that her Scroll was making. A small picture of Summer was visible, next to the words 'Incoming Call' along with a green and red button that said 'Answer' and 'Reject' respectively. She pressed the green button and Summer's face promptly appeared on screen, her real face this time.

"You never came home last night," Summer stated while something sizzled in the background.

"I overheard your conversation with Tai. Something about the kids being gone. I wanted to give you some privacy." Red said as she stood up on the tree branch. Her back twinged in pain from the hard surface that she slept on. "Didn't plan on falling asleep though." She hopped down, Scroll in one hand and Blue in the other.

"Breakfast is almost ready if you wanted to come join us." Summer informed her. If Summer's cooking was half as good as Tai's was, then she was all over it.

"I'll be there in about fifteen minutes." She replied, walking towards where she had entered the forest from. "See you soon." She shut the scroll and replaced it in her jacket pocket. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed a black bird watching her. At first, she had thought it a Grimm, but it lacked all the features of one. It was just an ordinary bird. She kept her steady pace towards Summer's house, and reached the massive crater. In the daylight it looked like a meteor or something impacted here. The ground had stopped smoldering, thankfully. It reeked of ozone, however, so that was something that would have to be addressed somehow. The house came into view and the smell of delicious pastries hit her nose immediately, completely drowning out the smell of the crater. The familiar sound of youthful voices could be heard inside.

"Uncle Qrow! You're here!" Ruby's yell was muffled, but still definitely audible. She opened the door with a loud creak, immediately drawing the attention of everyone in the living room. Everyone being Ruby, Yang, Taiyang, and a stranger with jet black hair and piercing red eyes. He had a strange looking sword draped across his lower back. The outfit he wore was a black pants, a white button up shirt, and an opened grey jacket.

"Oh, good. You're here." Summer spoke from her position at the kitchen door. "Breakfast is ready. I made chocolate chip pancakes." Ruby dashed into the kitchen at the word 'chocolate'. Yang followed, which left Tai, Red, and the stranger.

"This is Qrow, he was on mine and Summer's team back at Beacon." Tai nodded towards the other male.

"Good to meet you," He extended a hand, which Red didn't hesitate to return. He looked strikingly like Blue did, back when he was alive. She couldn't stop looking. Save for a few minor differences like facial structure and his hair, it was Blue. In the flesh.

He must have noticed her staring, "Do I have something on my face?" Red flushed and stuffed her hands in the jacket pockets.

"No, it's just you look like someone I used to know." Red admitted, hoping to deflect from the topic. A familiar warmth settled over her consciousness, Blue's reassurance calming her frazzled nerves. "We should probably eat before it's all gone." Red gestures towards the kitchen and withdrew her weapon to place in its usual spot. Qrow and Tai were both seated by the time she got Blue settled in.

"What happened to the backyard, mom?" Yang asked as she settled in for her breakfast. "There's a giant crater back there." Summer choked on her food slightly, needing a backrub from Tai to help it down.

Red covered for her. "We were planning on putting in a swimming pool and kinda overdid it on the Dust. We were going to finish it today as a surprise for you two, but you came home early." Tai's eyes darted to the User, not expecting her to come up with such a convincing lie so quickly.

"Oh wow! A pool! That's awesome!" Ruby cheered, spewing pieces of pancake all over her plate. Summer gave the miniature version of herself a harsh look, making Ruby blush and swallow her mouthful of food. "Sorry mommy."

"That's _cool_." Yang said with a cheeky smirk. Tai groaned and buried his face in his hands. Ruby was too busy wolfing down her second helping of pancakes to notice the bad pun. Summer returned the smirk to Yang, and Qrow just rolled his eyes.

"I should never have let your mother talk me into get you that book of puns." Tai muttered, earning a playful strike from Summer.

"My girl's got the gift." Summer hi-fived Yang. The breakfast had begun to wind down, Yang and Qrow already finished with their helpings. Ruby reached for a third helping, but was guided away by Summer.

"Aww, but mommy they're good." She begged, puppy dog eyes on full display. Summer wasn't phased in the slightest.

"Yang, go help your sister clean your room. After that maybe I'll think about baking some cookies." Ruby squeaked in delight. "But only if your room is clean, got that you two?" Ruby darted upstairs immediately, while Yang followed at a more sedate pace. Once the children were upstairs, Summer gave Red a pointed look.

"A swimming pool, really?" It seemed that Summer was dissatisfied with Red's excuse.

"How else would you easily explain away a giant hole in the ground?" Red countered, placing her plate in the sink.

Qrow was the next to speak. "Speaking of, how _exactly_ did you guys manage to put that big of a hole in the ground if it wasn't Dust?" Summer nodded towards the User, and Qrow raised an eyebrow as if in disbelief.

"Hey, you wanted me to show Glynda what I was capable of, so I did." Red shrugged and reclined in one of the seats, Blue now draped across her lap.

"So it was your semblance that did that then," Qrow stated as the group moved into the living room area. Red turned to Summer, the woman having taken a seat on the couch next to Tai.

"Listen, I have to run to Hallow again, so we can just detour and I'll give him the full rundown then, alright?" Summer agreed with Red's request, but then the latter added. "I also would like to know if I could borrow one of your outfits, seeing as mine desperately need to be washed."

"I'll bring you down something," the ravenette walked upstairs, leaving Red alone with the two men.

Summer graciously allowed Red to use their shower and she was promptly changed into a button up dress shirt that Summer hadn't used in years and a pair of deep red slacks. The dilapidated leather holster than Blue normally sat in was absent, Red having finally trashed it. Blue rested in her right hand as she and Qrow trod up the path towards where Hallow was.

"After the bomb exploded, I ended up here." Red finished, having spent the last fifteen minutes telling Qrow about herself and answering whatever questions he may have had. She noticed that her voice box hadn't even begun to get warm, and wondered that if it was because of the Transistor allowing her to recover her energy at a superhuman pace.

" _Do you think you'll be able to sing again?_ " Blue asked her through their link. Red hummed in thought.

" _Maybe later, don't want to push it too hard._ " She replied. Qrow had been silent for a while now, most likely processing the plethora of information that she had given him. A branch snapped to her right, and a trio of Beowolves crept out of the forest eyes alight with rage. A glance behind them showed another three. They were surrounded. Qrow pulled out his weapon, Harbinger, as she had learned it was called.

"You take the front three I take the back three?" Qrow offered going back to back with the User.

"Loser buys lunch?" Red joked and triggered Turn(). The lead Beowolf that she was to kill had just braced itself for a leap when she entered her state of heightened awareness. She targeted the center Grimm with a Breach(Load(Spark())) and executed. Time sped up and she slammed the tip of the Transistor into the ground, sending three identical bolts of energy outwards, one at each of the Grimm. The bolts collided with their targets, detonating on impact and sending the now exploded Beowolves flying backwards, the process of sublimation already beginning to take place. Qrow was no slouch either. While Red took care of her foes, he decapitated each of the Grimm in turn with a single strike. The entire fight took less than one second. Qrow turned to see Red staring at him, a small smirk on her face.

"Damn, you're fast." He complimented, noting the three sublimating Grimm that had been sent flying backwards. Red rested the Transistor on the ground, tip first.

"C'mon, we should get going. Day isn't getting any longer." She hoisted Blue onto her shoulder and began walking back down the path they had started. Her chrono read 8:45, fifteen minutes after they had left Summer's house. Qrow placed his weapon back into its spot on the small of his back. The rest of their journey went uninterrupted and they arrived at Hallow without any further incidents. The familiar gate, that Red now knew was the East Gate, creaked open, revealing the town. A trio of large cargo trucks were parked in the open area next to the gate where we entered, at least half a dozen people unloading cargo from each of them. One of them labeled with a snowflake with the words 'Schnee Dust Company' in fancy script underneath it. Another was labeled 'Patch Agriculture and Farmlands' and had a picture of some kind of fruit, as well as what looked to be a cow and chicken in black and white paint. The last was named 'Azura Armories'. Its logo was a crossed long sword and rifle, over a silver kite shield. A group of people were gathered in the center point between the three trucks. One of the people, an older man seemed to lock eyes with Qrow, and bulled his way through the crowd to get to him.

"Qrow! Just the person I was hoping to see!" The man wore a tan colored suit, his graying moustache bouncing with every word spoken. "I need a veteran Huntsman to clear the road north of here so the trucks can continue on their route. A Taijitu nest is obstructing them from moving safely. You would of course be compensated for your time." He seemed to finally notice Red at his side. "Of course, your girlfriend is also a Huntress. She is welcome to join you. I would pay you both equally."

Before Qrow could get a word in edgewise, Red answered. "We'd be glad to help, just point us in the right direction." She smiled at the elderly man, who seemed like he had just had a great weight lifted from his shoulders.

"Oh, wonderful!" He clapped his hands together. "I'll send the information to Qrow's scroll. He still has the same number, doesn't he?" Qrow looked very put out by Red volunteering the both of them, but didn't bring it up.

"Yes I do, Mayor Bonne." Qrow grumbled. The mayor all but leapt forward to shake both of their hands. He quickly walked back into the crowd of people. "Why did you go and do that?" Qrow rounded on Red, a glare fixed on his face.

"I'm presuming that 2000Ł isn't enough for a properly armored set of clothes, and seeing as that's all I have left, I need to take another job. I'd be more than willing to give you what's left after I get my clothing and armor situation set up." Red countered. Qrow seemed to relax a bit, though Red sensed that he wasn't going to let it go completely. Qrow's Scroll beeped loudly, and while he went to check it, Red focused her energy and activating the passive form of Bounce. Within seconds, a shimmering barrier appeared around her body briefly, then disappeared. Qrow looked up to see what she was doing.

"What was that?" He asked as he closed his scroll and placed it back in his jacket pocket.

Red rested Blue on her shoulder and cracked her neck. "I just activated one of my functions to provide a constant, recharging shield. Should come in handy considering that the mayor thinks that the job we're about to do is suited for veteran Hunters." Qrow couldn't find a fault in her logic, so they started towards the North Gate. The gate opened quickly and within minutes they were on their way. Their target was five kilometers along the north road out of Hallow. A nest of roughly twenty juvenile Taijitu and two King Taijitu were creating a nest about 100 meters west of the main road. They were forming a mound and had already begun to attack humans. The journey there was relatively quiet, only the sounds of nature interrupted the silence. She liked to imagine that this was what the Country sounded like, save for the Grimm. Distant gunfire drew their attention. It sounded like it was coming from about half a kilometer away, on the opposite side of the road from their destination. Red looked to Qrow, figuring that this would be his show.

"The Taijitu can wait, there could be people in danger." He whipped out Harbinger and took off running towards the gunfire. Red followed, her adrenaline rushing through her veins. A grin unconsciously found its way to her face.

" _You ready, Blue?_ " Red sent through their link.

" _Always,_ " he replied instantly. They broke the tree line to see two groups of humans squaring off in a gun battle. One group was taking cover behind the trees, the other was ducking behind a large pickup truck. The latter were outnumbered four to one, and only had two guns among them. Every single member of the group in the trees was armed with automatic weapons. Red didn't need to know specifics to know that the ones in the trees were bandits. It seemed Qrow had reached the same conclusion, and pressed a button on his weapon. It unfolded into a broadsword similar to the Transistor. She ran forward, activating Turn() when she was about halfway to the tree line. She totaled the number of bandits at eighteen, very much overkill for the four defenders. Not wanting to accidentally kill the men, she settled for either a blow to the head, or stomping hard on their feet. She had no idea how strong or weak Aura was and she didn't even know if these men had it. Once she had dealt a single blow to the first ten men, she hit execute. Her body raced forward, blowing past Qrow, and struck each of the men, all in less than half of a second. The remaining bandits turned towards her, and raised their weapons. She projected a shield in front of her, the red Dust rounds exploding harmlessly against it. Qrow took advantage of her distraction and disabled the remaining men. The ones that weren't unconscious were in no shape to fight back.

"Not bad, Red." Qrow smirked at the User. She smiled at him and turned towards the family, whom had looks of relief painted on their faces.

"Oh, thank you. Those men wanted us to pay a toll to go into Hallow, when we refused, they got angry and attacked." The mother was nearly in tears. The father and one of the older children, a late teenager, cradled aged looking assault rifles in their arms. The youngest boy was hiding behind the mother.

"It was no trouble, really." Qrow placed his weapon back on his back. "I'm just glad we got here before anything tragic happened." Red couldn't have agreed more. She noticed Qrow sending a message to someone, probably contacting the authorities. "Well, we should get going. I contacted the HPD and they're sending two Bullheads to come pick these clowns up. They should be here within a minute. They had some on standby in case the situation with the mission we're on got too hairy for us to handle." Qrow explained to the relieved family. Within moments, the dull whine of the familiar aircraft was heard. A moment later, two of the stubby winged aircraft were approaching the clearing where Red and Qrow were. "Guess we'll leave you to it then, c'mon Red." Qrow began walking back towards the road. The journey waned on, taking much longer than she had expected thanks to their detour. Red couldn't help but glance at Qrow every so often. The resemblance between him and Blue was uncanny. They were about the same height, same build, similar hairstyles. Even the manner in which they did things was similar too. These unbidden thoughts made a wave of guilt hit her.

" _Hey, don't worry about it Red. It happens to everyone._ " Blue tried to comfort her, but she couldn't accept it.

" _I can't help it. I see you every time I look at him._ ". Red replied through their link. Tears threatened to spill and she began to lag behind Qrow. Despite Blue's comforting words, her sorrow began to overcome her. She fell to her hands and knees, Blue crashing to the ground beside her. Shuddering sobs were the only sounds she could produce, her throat clenched and tears rolled down her cheeks. Qrow turned and saw her predicament.

"It's not fair," Red whimpered through the tears. "It's not fair that they took you from me." She buried her face in her hands and sobbed loudly. Qrow took a moment to survey the area, making sure that no Grimm were being attracted to her negative emotions, before moving over to the broken woman. "They took you from me," Her choked words barely managed to leave her mouth, drowned out by the tears.

"We're really close to the Taijitu nest, if she doesn't get this under control, they're gonna be all over us." Qrow told Blue, real panic in his voice. As if bidden by his words, loud hissing could be heard from the direction they were walking. Four large Taijitu, two white headed ones and two black headed ones, were slithering in their direction. Behind them, he could see some of the adolescents too. Far too many for Qrow to simultaneously handle and protect Red. Red looked up at the disturbance, noticing the sleek forms of the Grimm. In her mind, however, she saw a very different foe. She saw four Spines coming at her all at once. Her thoughts instantly turned to the Camerata and the Process. Pure hatred boiled in her veins. The Transistor vanished with a flash of cyan light and electricity raged across her skin.

"You did this," She hissed angrily at the Grimm. The lightning began to pool around her hands. "YOU DID THIS!" She screamed and blasted the four Grimm with the most powerful Kill() she had ever produced. An area triple the size of the crater she had caused yesterday vanished in a bright blue light. Lightning crackled around the orb of pure power. Red fed energy to the attack, not satisfied with simply killing them, she wanted to erase every trace of their existence. The sky darkened with the intensity of the attack. Red suddenly fell forwards, passing out from the exertion. The last thing she saw was a massive explosion where her attack once was.

Red was out like a light, her weapon clanked lamely to the ground beside her. "Red! Red say something!" Blue pleaded desperately with her.

"She isn't gonna answer you, she exhausted herself." Qrow said, still in shock from what he had just witnessed. "Look over there," He pointed towards the smoldering crater that was fifty meters wide. Trees had been flattened in an area twice that. It looked like a massive bomb had gone off. "Never seen anything like that, and I once saw two Maidens have a deathmatch. Looked like a natural disaster hit the town they were in. Nothing they used even came close to this scale of destruction." Qrow gently picked up the User bridal style and placed Blue across her. "Guess we can officially report the Taijitu nest cleared out. She killed all of them in one go." Qrow began the slow walk back to Hallow. "Any of them that are left probably wish that they died." Qrow shook his head as he looked down at the woman in his arms. Her eyes were still puffy and red from the tears. Her mouth was fixed in a frown. Her breathing was even, however. That was good at least.

"Red did that?" Blue was in awe at the scale of destruction she caused.

Qrow answered. "Yeah, speaking of that. Mind telling me what that was?" They passed by the area where they rescued the family, now completely empty. It would be a bit before they reached the city.

"That's what Red calls SuperUser. She merges with the Transistor and gains all of its abilities and power. It lets her use that. She hasn't fully mastered it though." Blue explained.

"Coulda fooled me." He grumbled. Qrow would make it a point to talk to Summer and Tai and ask them if they knew who they were sheltering could cause this kind of destruction. The rest of his walk was silent. Neither Qrow nor Blue being comfortable enough with each other to have idle conversation. Red never stirred once. He reached the gates of Hallow in about ten minutes. The mayor was waiting at the gate, a worried look on his face.

"What was that explosion, we saw it from here? Is she okay?" Bonne asked quickly. Qrow sighed wearily, just wanting to drop her off back at Summers place and unwind. Today was not conducive for his sanity.

"Her semblance is electrical manipulation. She just used too much Dust and tired herself out. She will be fine. The Taijitu are gone." Qrow told the older man. He still looked worried, but was placated. At least he was until Qrow added. "The road might be a little worse for wear, however. They ambushed us before we got to their nest." Qrow took a small amount of delight in the panicked look on the man's face.

The mayor recovered quickly. "Well, thanks for clearing out the Taijitu. I can arrange a Bullhead to take you and your girlfriend home if you want." He beckoned over a pilot.

"Take us to Summer's house. That's where we're staying." Qrow told the pilot, who immediately left to warm up his vehicle. Within minutes the aircraft was dropping them off at Summer's house. His team leader was on the porch, a worried look on her face when she saw that he was carrying Red.

"What happened?" Summer asked, taking stock of the unconscious woman.

Qrow set her down on the couch, and her weapon leaning against her. "Do you have any idea who you're letting live in your house?" He hissed at Summer. "She blasted a crated in the road fifty meters across, at least!" He huffed and took a moment to stare down at the unconscious woman. "Flattened trees for twice that. Used some kind of electrical attack."

"I had no idea she was capable of that kind of destruction." Summer whispered in shock.

"Neither did I," Blue chimed in, deciding to defend his love. "She was overcome with emotion. Qrow and I look a lot alike, and Red picked up on that immediately." Summer and Qrow turned to look at the luminescent sword. "She kept making comparisons between the two of us on the trip over there. It made her feel awful that she was even thinking of moving on from me, despite the fact that technically I've been dead for three years." They glanced at the unconscious woman. Her breathing rate had picked up, signaling that she was waking up. Red's eyes fluttered open and when she realized that she wasn't in her room, she blindly felt around for her weapon.

" _It's okay Red. I'm right here._ " Blue sent through their link. Red's body visibly untensed. She gripped the handle of the Transistor and brought it close to her chest.

"You passed out, after you wiped out the Taijitu." Qrow stated flatly. Red's eyes darted up to the Huntsman.

"I did what? I don't remember anything except…" She trailed off, her memories of the events coming back to her. "I…" She gripped Blue tighter. "Did anyone get hurt?" She asked, looking almost desperately to Qrow.

"No, you didn't hurt anything besides Grimm. And maybe a few dozen trees." Qrow's voice was low, comforting. Red seemed to relax somewhat.

" _Red, is it alright if we went in the other room and talked privately?_ " Blue asked through their link. Red nodded, and walked out of the room without saying another word. Once she was back in her room, Blue began to talk. " _We can't keep doing this anymore, Red._ " Red stared down confusedly at the sword. " _It's unhealthy for you, me still being here. You can't love a guy who's been dead for three years._ "

"I need you," Red begged softly, staring into the red orb on the Transistor. "I can't live without you," Red's voice choked, her eyes starting to tear up.

" _I'm just holding you back, Red. Let's face it, there's no way that we can even begin to try to get me a new body. This world, it's less advanced than ours. If we couldn't get me a body back in Cloudbank, what makes you think we have a chance here?_ " Blue's voice was showing signs of breaking as well. " _I can leave, for a while. Give you a chance to think things over without me._ " Red looked like she was about to break all over again.

"You can't leave me," She said sadly. Tears were rolling down her cheeks.

" _If you still feel the same way when I come back, then I'll stay._ " Blue stated, giving Red at least a small comfort.

Red didn't agree with him, but she would let him leave, if only so it would cement his place in her life when he came back. After a month they would be back together again. "Alright, but only for one month. No more." Red felt him press warmly against her mind. "I wish you didn't have to go at all." Red clutched the Transistor tighter than ever before.

"I love you, Red." Blue said aloud, her voice bringing her comfort.

She nuzzled the weapon. "I love you too, Blue." And just like that he was gone. The ever-present warmth inside her brain vanished, leaving an almost too cold sensation. She curled up in a ball, holding the Transistor tightly to her, as if letting it go would cause her to lose it forever. Her sleep was restless, and plagued with dreams from before the Collapse. Their vacation to Junction City, two years after she first appeared on the stage, the night he proposed, the morning after. Her dreams were both a reminder of what she once had, and of what she lost.

* * *

A/N: No, he's not going away forever, I just thought that Red needed some alone time to cope with his death.


	5. Chapter 5

Red awoke slowly, her whole body was sore from her episode. She suppressed a yawn and sat up, the Transistor falling to her side. It was strange. She knew that Blue was gone, but she didn't feel sad, or angry that he left. She just felt numb. It wasn't like he was going to be gone forever, just for a month. She stared down at the Transistor. Despite no physical change, it seemed dull now. Lifeless even. She almost didn't want to get out of bed for the day. Blue would have demanded that she pick herself up and continue on with life. He would say something like, 'Don't let me keep you down, you have to get back out there and help make the world a better place.' Her chrono read 7:30 AM. She grabbed Blue's jacket, the sheet of metal, and the armor resistant cloth and exited her room. Summer was in the kitchen cooking something that smelled sweet. She placed her stuff down on the coffee table in the living room and made her way to the kitchen.

"Something smells good," She complimented inhaling deeply as Summer prepared breakfast.

Summer turned to appraise the User. "Thanks, I'm making cinnamon buns." She noticed how pale Red looked. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Red waved her off. "It's just…" Red took a seat at the table. "…Blue's gone." She withstood the barrage of emotions that saying his name brought on.

"Gone?" Summer questioned. "As in gone gone?" Red shook her head.

"Just for a while, said that we had even less of a chance of getting him a new body here than we did in Cloudbank. Even if we managed to find him a new body, I'm not sure how we'd even go about putting him in it." Red said, her voice wavering slightly. "If it were up to me, I'd still be in bed moping." Red gave a short laugh. "But he wouldn't want me to do that."

"He's right, laying around and moping doesn't help the pain get any better." Summer flipped the oven off and opened the bottom door. She pulled out a tray of steaming hot cinnamon buns, two dozen at least. The smell grew from faint to powerful instantly, making Red's stomach growl. Summer retrieved a bowl from the first oven and began spooning icing over the buns. "Watch, I guarantee that within a minute you'll hear someone coming down the stairs" Red leaned back in the chair and waited. Summer hadn't even finished icing the full tray before someone was plodding down the stairs. That someone was Qrow. Red smirked at Summer, who returned the look with gusto. Qrow lazily wandered into the kitchen and poured a cup of coffee. Red never cared much for the drink.

"Qrow, can you wake the kids?" Summer asked as she pulled out six plates. Qrow waved a hand in acknowledgement, too busy drinking deeply from his coffee to verbally answer.

"So, why is he here, exactly? He doesn't strike me as the type to stay in one place." Red inquired.

"He's going to be teaching at Signal this coming school year." Summer said as she sat down to her own plate, having already divided the cinnamon buns amongst the six people in the house. "Tai is going to be teaching the combat class and Qrow is in charge of Aura manipulation." Summer blinked, before staring at Red. "Speaking of Aura, would you like me to unlock yours?"

Red blinked at the request. "Uhhh…" She started, not quite sure how to answer. "I have no way of knowing how that would affect the Transistor, since my soul is tied to it. For all I know, it could release the Process here on Remnant, which would be extremely bad." Red looked at her cinnamon rolls hungrily. "I think it would be better to see if I could unlock it on my own, if at all." Obnoxiously loud footsteps came running down the stairs. Qrow following the two kids out, his coffee cup now drained and hanging limply from his hand. Why did he look like he had a rough night?

Everyone sat down and quickly finished their breakfast. Ruby, being the first done, tried to sneak one off of Qrow's plate, who pointedly ignored her attempts. The tiny ravenette fought to keep a look of triumph under control as she messily ate her fifth cinnamon roll. Tai and Summer gathered up the dishes and put them in the sink. Red interrupted Tai before he could leave the kitchen.

"Could you help me with something?" She asked tentatively.

Thankfully, Tai agreed. "Sure, what is it?" Red gestured to the pile of materials on the table.

"I wanna make a new holster for B-" She almost said his name. "For my weapon, out of the metal that I bought." Tai walked over to the square meter of an alloy of titanium that was naturally resistant to the effects of aura. The armorer had called it umbrium, named as such for its natural dark grey color.

"Shouldn't be too hard to forge into a decent holster." Tai said, now testing the bend strength of the metal. It bent slightly, but not very much. Tai smiled at it.

"You got this from Malten's place, didn't you?" Red nodded at the blonde. "His stuff always the best quality. It's where I got the material for my weapon, Calceryx." He gestured at what looked like a set of forearm guards, shin guards, gloves, and boots that were painted a deep golden color contained within a display case. Lightning dust could be seen in a mechanism that would fold behind the wearers appendages. "Made them fourteen years ago and haven't once failed me."

Red admired the intricately crafted weapon. "Do you think you could help me make it? I haven't exactly done anything with a forge before. My holster is usually leather." Tai looked over the schematic that Red had drawn up, essentially a more complete of her old holster with thicker straps holding it in place.

"I can do you one better. Your schematics look relatively complete, so this should be a simple job, and I could have it done a lot faster by myself." Red began to object to his offer, but he raised a hand to silence her. "I need the practice anyway. Glynda is gonna have me working with hundreds of different and unique weapons at Signal, so this should be an interesting way to start."

"If you're sure it's no trouble then." Red hesitantly accepted his offer.

Tai smiled at Red "It's no trouble at all. I have a couple projects I wanted to work on for Yang and Ruby today anyway. Who knows, I might even add a nice surprise to your holster." Red returned his enthusiastic smile and grabbed her weapon.

"I'm gonna go out into the forest and train some more. I'll be heading up the north road." The spot she had started training SuperUser at was fresh in her mind. "Should be back by lunch." Red waved at Tai and stepped outside. Yang was busy wailing on a target dummy with a wooden sword, obviously the thing Tai was working on for his daughter was a weapon of some kind. Red waved at Yang, the blond returning her wave despite being out of breath. The trip back to her spot was relatively dull, save for the feeling of constantly being watched. She could have attributed that to the Grimm, but she had never once been attacked. She would look around, only to see nothing but trees. She eventually reached her training site, still bearing damage from her previous session. Nature had attempted to fill in the holes, but the Cull() mark was too deep to be repaired so quickly.

Red let the Transistor hover in the air in front of her before starting her exercise. She twirled it in a spiral before she let loose with a Ping(Breach(Load())). The high-speed attack shot out from the hilt of her weapon and came directly at her. She ducked low, simultaneously queueing up a dozen more. They fired in quick succession, not giving the User a moment of peace. Normally Blue would take the initiative in targeting, but since he was absent, she had to make due with randomly targeted areas. Another Ping() whizzed by, Red only dodging by a hairsbreadth. It impacted a tree ten meters behind her, sending wooden shrapnel everywhere. The next one had her going airborne as she leapt over it. The fourth sailed through where her head was only a moment before. Willing her body to dive towards the ground, she narrowly evaded a fifth and sixth. Seven passed between her legs, while eight and nine went just past her left arm. Ten was dodged with a slight twist of her torso. Eleven came so close she could feel the heat from it burn the skin on her hand. Twelve was heading straight for center mass, with no way to dodge it in time. Summoning up the power of her weapon she activated Turn(). The world slowed to a crawl, the Ping() still advancing towards her at a steady pace. It was less than a meter away before she acted. With the back of her hand, she hit the function on the side, hoping to deflect it. Taking a deep breath and hoping she was right, she executed the maneuver. Time sped up and her body acted. The burn from the Ping() was great enough to leave her hand a little singed, but thankfully the attack didn't explode. She sent it off through the tree line, where it impacted with a loud explosion.

Red breathed a sigh of relief. The last time she had been hit with one of those she had been out of commission for nearly a week. The Transistor hovered towards her, as if eager to train some more. Her mind flashed back to the bandits that her and Qrow fought. Well, fought was a strong word for what they did to the bastards. She realized that she really didn't have much in the way of a true long ranged option. She focused her will on her weapon once more, this time to alter its shape. She pictured a long-barreled rifle, similar to the ones that she saw on her Scroll being used by those men in white armor. Within moments, her weapon had been reshaped from a zweihander to a rifle, the sides of the weapon bearing the bright red orb, the Barrel a darker blue than the rest of the weapon. A third red orb rest on the very tip of it, this one dull. She gripped it and tested how it would handle. She hefted it to her shoulder and activated a Ping(Breach(Load())). The tip of her weapon glowed for a split second before the red and blue beam of energy rocketed out. She hadn't been aiming at anything, so the function went about fifteen meters before impacting the ground, exploding and sending dirt flying everywhere. She hummed in disappointment, changing the Transistor back into its original form.

She focused on activating another function, one that she hadn't ever actively used on Remnant. Help(). With a burst of orange light, a familiar form appeared before her. Sybil, in her processed form. She was an imposing figure, especially so when you took in the fact that she used to be human.

"Hello, Sybil." Red smiled at the large being. She couldn't rightly be called Process since she held no loyalty to them, and yet she wasn't human either. Sybil looked down at Red eagerly, and Red felt a wave of positive emotion emitting from Sybil.

" _It's been a while_ ," Her voice sounded definitively less warped and robotic than it did when she first faced her, but it still held an otherworldly and ethereal tone to it. Sybil's glowing teal colored eyes stared down at the person she had betrayed. She had no inclinations that Red would ever forgive her, so she would spend whatever amount of time it required of her to make it up to the singer.

"I was hoping we could have a sparring match," Red suggested, unable to keep the excitement from her voice. She loved sparring with Sybil. She was the only Process she'd ever faced that had even come close to ending her. Her skill with her parasol was impeccable, though she no longer used the ability to summon randomized cells. Sybil raised said parasol, the two-meter-long weapon gleaming in the sunlight.

Sybil hummed in agreement. " _Hope you're ready for me._ " As soon as she finished her sentence Sybil rushed forward in the blink of an eye, hoping to catch the User off guard. However, her parasol found nothing but dirt. Thinking quickly, she evaded left, but still took a glancing blow. Red had used one of her thrice stacked functions, Distort(). The result of three Jaunt() functions working in unison gave the User an ability that was effectively a dash at speeds nearing the sound barrier. Not letting up, Red blinked forward and slashed again, this time Sybil being prepared for the blow and deflecting it with her parasol. The two entered a stalemate in which neither could land a solid blow. The clangs of blades crashing echoed throughout the forest. The best part about having Sybil as a sparring partner was that she never tired. She could fight for days as long as she was never damaged too heavily. Red and Sybil clashed blades once more, this time the force of it sending a wave of displaced air through the clearing. The trees rustled from the force. Red smirked at Sybil, who, despite not having a mouth, she like to think was doing the same.

"That was exhilarating." Red lowered her weapon, breathing heavily. Sybil did the same, though she had no need to breathe as Red did.

" _It was._ " Sybil replied curtly. Having felt her job finished, she prepared herself to dematerialize, but was confused when she didn't. Red was staring at her with a frown on her face. " _Is something wrong?_ " Sybil asked tentatively.

"He isn't here anymore." Red said. Despite not specifying who, Sybil knew exactly who Red was talking about.

" _What happened?_ " Sybil asked, worried for her friend.

"He said that I needed time to come to terms with his death on my own, and he vanished into the Transistor." Red's voice was cold. "He was acting like it was the last time we would see each other. I made him promise that he would come back after a month, but now I'm not so sure." She elaborated. Sybil visibly recoiled at that news. Those two had been as close as two people could possibly get. For him to just vanish. Something must have been wrong. "I was wondering if you could check, somehow. You live inside there, and I'm not sure I have a way inside that lets me get back out again." Red's eyes were moist with tears. She was trying so hard to suppress the sadness that she felt. Sybil felt she had to at least try.

" _I'll try, I can't guarantee anything, but I'll at least try._ " Sybil vanished into particles of light, and returned to the Transistor. Red sat there and waited. One minute turned to two. Two to five. Five to fifteen. After twenty-six minutes, she felt a tug on her soul, signaling that Sybil was contacting her. She rematerialized the former Process. Almost immediately, she felt the sadness coming off of the being in waves.

"Is he alright?" Red asked, her whole body was tense with nervousness.

" _He wanted to speak with you one last time._ " Sybil said solemnly. Her eyes shifted from bright cyan to dull navy blue. Red leaned forward towards Sybil.

"Blue?" She whispered tentatively.

" ** _Red,_** " His voice was sluggish and sickly. He sounded like he did when there was a Spine near, but it was ten times worse. " ** _I'm sor… sorry… that I can't be there for you anymore._** " She gripped at Sybil's frame, staring into the fading navy blue eyes. Her own had tears spilling liberally from them.

"Blue." She whispered, not nearly face to face with the man she loved. "Why didn't you tell me?" Blue fell to his knees, Sybil's body still towering over her own.

" ** _I didn't want t… to worry… you._** " He said, the light in his eyes growing even more dim. " ** _I'm… I… I love you… Red._** " His voice was fading too now.

"I love you too, Blue." And then he was gone. Forever this time. Red felt like a piece of her soul had just died. The glow faded completely for a moment, before being replaced with Sybil's cyan.

" _I'm sorry, ma'am. I gave him as much energy as I could afford to spare._ " Sybil attempted to console Red, wrapping her human body in a hug. The User melted into it, sobbing loudly. Sybil could feel the emotions of her friend. Red was heartbroken. " _I will stay with you as long as you wish._ " Sybil promised her friend. To her surprise, Red suddenly broke away. She stood up and grabbed the Transistor. The sorrow that Sybil felt from the woman quickly being replaced by rage.

"How would you feel about hunting some Grimm?" She said, her voice eerily calm. Sybil figured that Red needed something to take out her feelings on. Better the Grimm than her. After all, it was her fault that Red had lost Blue in the first place.

" _I would like that very much._ " Sybil agreed with Red, the latter adopting a confident smirk. They spent the next few hours tracking down and killing every single Grimm they came across. Taijitu, Beowolves, Ursai, Nevermores. They even stumbled upon one that looked like a giant gorilla. It was heavily armored and required the cooperation of both Sybil and Red to take down. Sybil ran interference on it, nimbly evading its constant attempts to grapple her, while Red struck at it from afar. She got some more practice in with the rifle form of her weapon. Eventually she figured out how to fire a long range Cull() from it, which impacted the beast in its cracked skull plate. The head all but evaporated, causing the Grimm to fall to the ground face first. The body began sublimating, casting a thick black smoke into the air. Red was breathing heavily by the end of the fight; having spent nearly all the energy she could muster. Sybil stared at the dissolving remains impassively.

"Oh damn, it's almost dinnertime." Red cursed, glaring at her chrono that read 4:53 PM. She had promised to be home by noon. She looked worriedly to Sybil. "Do you think you could walk me home? It shouldn't be too far from here." Red stood up and quickly began retracing her steps. Sybil followed behind her vigilantly, keeping an eye out for any Grimm that desired to take advantage of her friend's weakened state. It was past five by the time they caught sight of Summer's home, the sun already beginning to dip behind the horizon. Red turned to Sybil.

"Thanks for the help. I had fun out there, despite…" She trailed off, not wanting to say exactly what, but still getting the point across to Sybil.

" _I'm glad to serve at your side, Red._ " Sybil gave a mock salute before vanishing back into the Transistor. Red sighed sadly, before continuing the rest of the way home. Funny, she thought of Summer's house as her own home, despite having lived there only a few days. Maybe she was just clinging to the only people in the world she knew, but she felt more comfortable there than she ever had in her apartment at Cloudbank. Red tentatively opened the door, and immediately heard the familiar clanking of silverware. "I'm back," she called out to the room as she stepped inside and shut the door behind her. In almost comical fashion, Ruby and Summer both peeked their heads around the corner. Summer looked taken aback by Red's disheveled appearance. The clothes that she had lent the User were torn in many places, one of the pant legs ripped off entirely because of a sneaky Beowolf.

"What happened?" Ruby asked. "You look like you got into a fight with a Beowolf. Red laughed, given that that was exactly what happened.

"After my training session, I went Grimm hunting. There was this gorilla one that adamantly refused to die." Red placed the Transistor down, leaning it against the coffee table, before plopping wearily onto the comfortable couch.

"You killed a Beringel? Wow" Ruby immediately rushed over to the User, eyes gleaming with awe. "They're supposed to be tough for even veteran Hunters to handle."

"Well, I wasn't exactly alone." Red admitted. "Maybe if you're good I'll show you tomorrow?" Ruby nodded vigorously and sped back into the kitchen to finish dinner. Summer made sure that Red was looking at her before she glanced at the Transistor and back again, wordlessly asking if Blue was back. Red shook her head solemnly, her expression turning sour immediately. Summer sat down next to the User.

"What happened?" Summer stared at Red's weapon, practically feeling the sadness radiating from the redhead.

"He's gone. For good." Red whispered. "He had been struggling to stay with me for a long time. All he had enough strength left for was to say goodb-" Red hiccupped, her suppressed emotions threatening to spill over again. Summer embraced the other woman in a hug, pressing her head to her chest. Red, unable to conceal her emotions anymore, began sobbing in full. Summer just let her cry it out. It would be the best thing for Red. Keeping emotions in can be lethal in the field. Three curious faces peeked around the corner, but were quickly forced to retreat by a sharp glare from Summer. She helped get Red to her feet and guided her to her room, where she could express her emotions more privately. Red and Summer sat down on the bed. The former's sobs had settled down somewhat, becoming more muted. Red looked up at Summer, her eyes bleary and bloodshot.

"Thank you," Red whispered quietly. Summer hugged the other woman tighter, knowing the pain of losing someone that you cared deeply about. Raven had been a close friend, until she abandoned STRQ. Red laid back on the bed, kicking off her boots and getting into a comfortable position. Summer took that as her queue to leave.

"Sleep well, Red." Summer gave one last smile at the User before quietly closing the door. The kitchen was now empty, save for Tai cleaning up the dishes. Summer approached her husband, tapping him on the shoulder.

"What happened?" He asked immediately.

Summer wrapped him in a hug, resting her head on his shoulder much like Red did to her earlier. "Blue died." She told him. "She got to talk to him one last time today before it happened." Summer squeezed Tai tighter, prompting him to wrap an arm around her.

"That's awful," Tai said, knowing what Summer was implying. "I worry about that happening every time one of us goes out into the field." They remained silent, content to hold each other for a brief moment.

"C'mon," Summer tapped his shoulder once, prompting him to let go. "You wash I dry?" She said, picking up the dish towel, knowing that he would say yes.

Red's sleep had been blissfully dull. No dreams or nightmares that she never remembered, no waking up multiple times, just peaceful sleep. She sat up, stifled a yawn, and stretched. Only when she looked down did she remember that she hadn't changed her clothes, and that the ones that she currently wore were beyond repair. Thankfully, Summer had washed and dried her combat outfit. After checking her chrono, which read 4:59 AM, she gathered up her clothes for the day and silently crept to the first floor shower. The warm water was heavenly, and she scrubbed every part of her body. After yesterday's jaunt through the forest, it was necessary. Feeling squeaky clean, she dried off and donned her combat outfit. With a quick trip back to her room to deposit the rags of her previous clothes and pick up the Transistor, which was sporting the new holster Tai had made for her, she quietly exited the house and began making her way to the backyard. The hole had been partially filled in, the center part of it excavated further to form a rounded rectangular shape. Evidently, they took her cover story of a swimming pool to heart. She walked even further past the pool to near the edge of the clearing. She was about 200 meters from Summer's house, well enough away that she could summon Sybil again and not have them hear her early morning sparring.

Red stabbed her weapon into the ground and concentrated. Slowly, Sybil's form began to appear again. Her three meter tall form just as sleek and clean as it was yesterday. Red felt a small burst of happiness through their link.

" _Good to see you again, ma'am._ " Sybil greeted curtly, her parasol resting on her shoulder.

"I was hoping we could have another bout like yesterday." Red asked, pulling the Transistor out of the ground and giving it a twirl to flick the dirt from it. Sybil perked up at the mention of a spar. Evidently, she had had fun yesterday. Sybil flourished her parasol and got into a fencer's stance. Red moved into a similar stance. A brief moment of peace before the two fighters clashed. They made sure that no matter where they moved, they didn't stray too far towards the house. Their blades rang sharply as one blocked or parried attack after another echoed through the yard. Red blinked behind Sybil immediately after dodging one of her attacks. The Transistor's edge narrowly hit Sybil, the force of the attack only enough to throw her off balance. To her credit, she recovered quickly and went on the offensive again.

Sybil's massive blade was a lot harder to block than it was to parry, which is why Red kept the Transistor firmly grasped in two hands. All of Sybil's attacks were aimed at her extremities. While it was an effective strategy, Red had plenty of experience in dealing with enemies who targeted those areas. Deciding to turn things up a notch, Red blinked behind Sybil, feinting a stab. By the time she had turned to block it, Red had already blinked back to her other side. She swung again, her blow connected solidly with Sybil's back, knocking her off balance. Red kept the pressure on, blinking to Sybil's other side and launching another attack in the same spot. Sybil went skidding backwards about four meters before coming to a stop. Acknowledging that she had been beaten, she returned her parasol to her resting pose on her shoulder.

" _An excellent fight,_ " Sybil complimented. Red smiled and returned the Transistor to the sheath on her back.

Red's gaze turned skyward, catching glimpses of the sunrise. "Thank you," she said suddenly. Sybil appeared confused for a moment. "For being there for me yesterday. I know that I haven't forgiven you for… everything. I probably won't ever forgive you for it. But I'd like to try to start fresh, as it were." Red's words stirred something deep inside Sybil.

" _I would like that._ " Sybil bowed her head to Red. " _Despite that, know that I'll spend as long as it takes trying to make it up to you._ " Her words were resolute, leaving Red no room to argue.

"I know," Red spoke softly. She unsheathed her sword and stabbed it into the ground next to her. "I've been training quite a lot since I last summoned you. Not yesterday, before that." Red tapped into the power of SuperUser. "I can do this now," The Transistor vanished, making Sybil recoil in shock. Her realized power became visible, crackling electricity jumping lightly across her skin. Sybil tentatively reached out to touch the arcing currents, and recoiled when one jumped at her. The electricity seemed to sense what she was.

" _Is this…_ " Sybil had seen this before, when Royce needed to tame an unruly Process. Using a part of her trace is how he did so. " _Mine?_ " Sybil finished, suddenly realizing just how out of her depth she was when it came to their sparring matches.

"Yes." Red answered, knowing what Sybil meant. "It's called SuperUser. I've been able to use its power for about a year now." She channeled her energy, causing the storm playing across her skin to expand tenfold. An exhale caused the storm to die to almost nothing. "It's getting easier to control." She dismissed the Function, the Transistor reappearing where she had planted it. Her stomach rumbled, reminding her that she hadn't eaten anything since yesterday morning. "I'll see you soon, Sybil."

" _See you soon, Red._ " Sybil vanished in a flurry of luminescent particles once more. Red picked up the Transistor, placed it back into her holster, and began walking back towards the house. She walked slowly to give herself a moment to think. Blue was gone. Forever. It was weird, it didn't feel like he was officially dead, yet she knew he was. The emotion was there, just muted. Maybe she really had come to terms with it. Busying herself around Patch had certainly helped. Red decided then and there to go into Hallow and take more missions. She didn't need Summer, now that she had her own scroll. Satisfied with her course of action for the day, she headed inside. Her chrono read 7:20, so someone should have been up at least. Tai and Yang were sitting on the couch, the former watching TV while the latter was doing something on her scroll. Neither looked up at her entrance, evidently used to the fact that she went out early in the morning to train. Red walked into the kitchen, noting that Summer was also absent. As she fixed herself a glass of water, Tai entered the kitchen behind her.

"Where's Summer?" Red asked after she chugged down half the glass.

"Today's the tenth anniversary of the Mountain Glenn tragedy, so all off duty Hunters are getting put on patrol." He explained, before remembering that Red was new to Remnant. "Mountain Glenn was an expansion outside of the mainland of Vale. It was wiped out by the Grimm and over 100,000 people died there. A lot of survivors from there live here on Patch, so patrols have to get stepped up in the days leading to the anniversary and after." Red nodded in understanding. "I'm exempt from this, since I'm going to be teaching at Signal in two weeks and need time to get prepared, otherwise I'd be out there with her." He began making a cup of coffee, just in time for Summer to come down the stairs. She was wearing an armored corset, pants that looked like they had dust woven into them, and she had arm guards that wouldn't be out of place on military combat armor. The entire thing was painted white and black. Her twin tomahawks were clipped to her waist, the brown satchel was hanging loosely on her back.

"Good morning, Red." Summer greeted casually as she began filling a thermos with coffee and what looked like an obscene amount of sugar.

"Tai told me that you were going on patrol." Red placed her empty glass in the sink and sat down at the table. Summer took a large pull from her thermos, before putting the top back on and placing it in her satchel.

"Yeah, gotta. Glyn swung by yesterday while you were out and cleared me for active duty." Summer's tone was more serious than Red was used to. "I can't wait until this shitstorm is over and I can get back to normal."

"Would it be alright if I went with you?" Red asked tentatively.

"You know we won't get paid, right? This is all pro bono required service by the Kingdom." Summer elaborated. Red just shrugged.

"I don't mind, could always use it as practice anyway." Red looked towards the living room as the last member of Summer's family cautiously came down the stairs. Ruby had just woken up and yawned cutely. While stifling a second yawn, she plopped down next to Yang and focused her attention on the TV.

"Well we should probably get an early start so we can be back by dinner, then." Summer started towards the living room.

"She doesn't seem very happy about this," Red told Tai, then added "I mean, the anniversary of a tragedy like that is definitely not a happy time, but she seems… off. For lack of a better word." Tai frowned, Red having drudged up bad memories.

"We were there." He said grimly. "Fresh out of Beacon, called in because Grimm were pouring through Glenn's perimeter and were roaming around uncontrolled in the city. Everyone got a call that day. Raven, my partner, almost died. I think Summer took it personal cuz she was having trouble this stubborn Nevermore. Raven was with her, me and Qrow having been separated from them at the time." Tai gulped down more of his coffee. "Her cloak got pinned by one of its pinions and she couldn't get there in time for it to break Raven's Aura. It was seconds away from finishing her off before Sum got to it. She must've cut that Grimm into about a thousand pieces by the time we arrived. The evac order had gone out by that point, so Qrow carried his sister and we booked it for the nearest Bullhead." Tai's voice trailed off.

"You don't have to tell me anything else," Red said consolingly. "I get it. Bad memories." Red left Tai in the kitchen and joined Summer and the kids in the living room. Summer was fussing over her lookalike daughter.

"Ruby, don't put your feet on the table." Summer stared hard down at her daughter until she removed said feet from the coffee table. "Now, if you're good, I'll bring you back something from the bakery." Summer smiled, then turned to Yang. "Do you have all of your school supplies ready Yang?"

"Yes mom," Yang said without looking up from her Scroll. Summer reached down to tousle the young blonde's hair. Yang ducked her head, clearly displeased.

"Okay, be good for your father. We'll be back before dinner." Summer looked to Red, whom was waiting by the front door. Tai exited the kitchen with what appeared to be a fresh cup of coffee in his hand. "Bye hon," Summer kissed him on the lips, which Yang commented on with a faked gag. "Love you."

"Love you too, Sum." Tai opened the door for the two women, whom promptly departed. The door closed behind them and they began the long, quiet walk towards Hallow. Already, distant gunfire could be heard from somewhere else on the island.

"So where are we headed?" Red asked, wanting to take the edge off.

"We're gonna be on the road between Hallow and Mercy. That's the road heading west from just off the north gate. It's about eight kilometers long. We're probably gonna see five or six other patrols along that way, being that it's the major road between Patch's two major cities. Signal is just outside of Mercy by about a mile, so we'll probably be seeing that too." Summer's attention was drawn by a loud roar, whether of pain or of anger, she didn't know. When nothing jumped out at them, they continued down the road. "Probably not the best way to see the sights around our little island, huh?" Summer joked half-heartedly.

"Definitely not, but it'll have to do." Red agreed. Gunfire was almost a constant throughout their walk. As they got closer to the city, Bullheads could be seen coming and going periodically. A pack of two dozen Beowolves had the unfortunate luck to run across Summer and Red just before they reached Hallow. Red vanished in a burst of white rose petal in sync with two of the Grimm literally losing their heads. Not to be outdone, Red converted the Transistor into the rifle form and opened up on the distracted wolves. She managed to down four before the members of the pack that split off from Summer's carnage reached her. Red leapt backwards and switched her weapon back to the zweihander. The wolves crashed to the ground just as she activated one of her underused functions, Void(). A violet black singularity appeared as the effects of her Void(Crash(Get())) took effect. The Beowolves suddenly found themselves pulled in by the Function. She followed up on that with a Cull(), exploding the seven or so Grimm into a meaty paste. Summer was not spared the effects of the aftermath.

Chunks of steadily sublimating wolf were all over various parts of her body. "Ugh, thank God this stuff dissolves, else I'd have to trash the outfit." Summer grumbled. "Still might." She added as she saw the puddle of Grimm that Red had left behind. An appraising smile found its way to Summer's face as she noted that the entire pack had been killed.

"Sorry, but I didn't feel like wasting time and I wanted to get them all at once." Red admitted. Summer just waved her off. Most of the chunks had dissolved by this point so she didn't see much need to argue. The duo continued on, reaching Hallow within five minutes. The number of guards had more than doubled since she was last here. A rotor blade Bullhead was taking off from a makeshift airfield in the clearing just inside the south gate. The bulletin board had been removed from its stand. People were going about their business as usual, clearly confident in the Hunters abilities to keep them safe. In the distant east, a flock of birds could be seen engaging in a dogfight with what looked like a pair of fighter jets.

"Sure is chaotic," Red noted idly. "They don't seem to be bothered much though."

"Yeah it's like this every year. Hallow is a well-fortified town. Most large Grimm don't really come to the island. The aquatic ones never really bother us either. The cliff is too high for them to get up." Summer clipped her tomahawks back to her waist and continued forward. Red sheathed the Transistor as she walked. "Most of our work will probably be walking." Summer said as they passed a group of people shopping at a fruit stand. "We're going to make the trip to Mercy, swing by Signal, then come back here. If we don't see much action, after lunch we're to do the same thing again." Summer explained as they approached the northern gate. A large transport truck was pulling in, carrying a load of what looked like industrial shipping crates marked with an SDC logo.

"There's today's Dust supply. Vale buys it, ships it here, and it gets used by Hunters. What is left is put into storage for later." Summer stepped past a machine that was moving towards the truck. The duo departed Hallow heading for the fork in the road. The sign at the fork had one arrow pointing northward with 'Arcadia' written on it. Two more were pointing towards the left road, one labeled 'Mercy' and one labeled 'Signal'. Summer and Red moved up the left path, the sound of another rotor Bullhead leaving Hallow audible.

Their walk was pretty quiet, like Summer said, and they reached the fork in the road where Signal was. Summer paused, and stared down the road, as if waiting for something. Seemingly bidden by her presence, a large Ursa came barreling down the street. Red got into a combative stance, but Summer held up a hand for her to wait. The Ursa drew within 50 meters before a loud gunshot rang out. At the same time, the Ursa's head exploded into a black, misty paste. It skidded to a halt, and a person dropped out of the tree next to it. The man was small, about Red's height at 5'4". The most notable feature was his nearly two-meter-long sniper rifle. A serrated bladed bayonet could be found on the front of it.

"Morning, 'Art." Summer greeted happily. "Figured you'd be set up somewhere near the crossroad." Summer turned to Red. "This is Chartreuse Pratus, best sniper I've ever seen." Turning back to the sniper. "This is Red. She's staying with me and Tai for a while."

"Call me Art, for short." The man said with a nod. His yellow green waistcoat billowed in the wind. A loud screech echoed through the tall trees. Art's rifle was immediately aimed towards the sky, searching for the Grimm that made that noise. Branches cracking from above were heard and Summer took a step towards Art. With a flash, Red transformed the Transistor into its rifle form. A large Nevermore suddenly came crashing through the branches, landing about ten meters down the road past Art. A vibrant pink person was standing on top of it. Summer and Art lowered their weapons, prompting Red to do the same. The pink person hopped off the sublimating bird and landed next to Art. Now that they were closer, Red could see that it was a she. Black leather belts adorned her outfit. In her hands were a pair of curved swords, red engraving could be seen along the length of the blade.

"Fuscia," Summer smiled at the pink woman.

"That thing was a ruddy tough bird." She grumbled. "How's your day so far, Sum?" Summer replied with a so-so gesture. "That bad, huh? Well, at least you have company. All Art here wants to do is sit in a tree. How boring, am I right?" The pink woman laughed.

"Not all of us enjoy riding on Nevermores, dear." Art said flatly, still scanning the area for Grimm. Red willed the Transistor back into zweihander form.

"Well we should probably get a move on then." Summer nodded at the couple. "Good seeing you two." Returning the gesture, Art and Fuscia leapt back into the trees. The User sped up to be beside Summer. The rest of their journey towards Mercy went unabated and they found themselves outside of a concrete wall that stood about eight meters high. A large metallic gate blocked their path. To the right, there was a smaller door meant for pedestrian travelers, complete with a guard tower mounted into the wall. "Welcome to Mercy," Summer spoke, gesturing towards the veritable fortress.


	6. Chapter 6

A/N: Here's the next chapter. Don't be afraid to leave a review.

* * *

Mercy was a fortress. Meter thick walls of dark gray concrete reinforced with titanium struts that poked out of the top and capped with even more titanium. Thick support columns were every twenty meters. Every ten meters between the columns there was a manned guard tower. With stuff like this at the disposal of humanity on Remnant to use on a small island, it put into perspective just how terrifying the Grimm were.

"It used to be a military base, during the Great War almost seventy years ago." Summer elaborated when she saw Red was staring at the walls. "Atlas and Mistral had nothing that could penetrate the walls. After the Mountain Glenn incident, it was upgraded and built to house refugees. Since then it became a thriving city." The guard cleared the two for access and the sight she saw as she entered the city forthright wouldn't be out of place in Cloudbank's outskirts. Decadently adorned street lamps lined the roads, buildings made from painted concrete. A tall, needle-like tower could be seen in the distance. There was about a ten-meter area of walkways and park land between the walls and the city proper. People were _everywhere_. Were she to wager a guess, Red figured there were thousands of people living here.

"This place is incredible." Red spoke breathlessly. Distant booming explosions sounded suddenly, making Red's nerves stand on edge. Summer placed a placating hand on her shoulder.

"Don't worry, that's just the Valean Air Force. Probably got tangled up with some Griffons." Summer waved her forward, heading deeper into the city. "C'mon, I know a great smoothie shop." Summer led Red down winding streets passing a plethora of different businesses along the way. After about five minutes of walking, they reached a shop called 'Groovy Smoothies'. Summer smirked when she saw Red read the name. Inside was a layout similar to Junction Jan's. A counter with stools lining it, behind that the booths that were placed at every window. A young woman with what looked like brown dog ears on her head was manning the counter. Red had seen pictures of Faunus online, but had never actually met one. She noticed Summer enter and waved at the Huntress with gusto.

"Figured I'd see you today." The clerk said, a slight twang to her voice. "I got it all ready to blend." Behind her was a variety of fruits and vegetables. Along with what looked like a premeasured cup of sugar. Red shook her head at the sight.

"Thanks, Erde." Summer walked over to the counter, gesturing Red to do the same. "What'll you have?" Summer asked her.

"Strawberry sunrise with ice, please." Red had looked at the menu for the first thing that sounded good to her. The barista nodded and went to work.

"Comin' right up." The blending machine was surprisingly quiet as she blended Summer's smoothie. Erde hummed happily as she cut up all the fruit necessary for Red's smoothie. "So, how's Hunting going, Sum?"

"Boring so far, thankfully. Only encountered a pack of Beowolves and an Ursa that Art put out of its misery." Summer said nonchalantly. "How's your husband?"

"Lehti's over just across the strait. Keeping Vale's northwest gate clear. He's already text me twice saying that Lancers were sighted there." Erde finished blending Summer's smoothie and filled a second blender with Red's. She deftly topped off the unmixed smoothie with half of a glass of orange juice and let the blender do the rest. "How's your little tykes? Tai doing okay?"

"He's starting his job at Signal next month, Yang is starting primary school in Hallow after the weekend, and Ruby is about as normal as a three-year-old who just had their Aura awoken can get." Summer sipped slowly at her smoothie. "Red here is staying with us for a while." The blender stopped again, and within moments Red had a fresh smoothie in front of her. The User began to take out her Lien card, but was stopped by the Faunus.

"Any friend of Sum's is a friend of mine." She smiled. "On the house." Red conceded and began to drink her smoothie. It was about what she expected, if nothing else. The smoothie was as good as anything she had ever gotten at Junction Jan's.

"How are your kids, Erde?" Summer had finished a third of her smoothie by now.

"Ada is startin' her second year at Signal comin' up and Canus is just learnin' to walk." Erde breathed a heavy sigh and plopped down into a chair behind the counter. "God this implant is killin' me." A hiss of depressurization was heard and suddenly there was a robotic leg resting on the counter. Red recoiled slightly, not having expected something like this.

"New leg?" Summer commented as if it was the most normal thing in the world.

"Yep," Erde patted the robotic leg lovingly. "Hunter grade metal. I could cut a Beowolf in half ass to neck if I kicked it hard enough. Once I get used to it and back in shape, I'm gonna take on local jobs again." Red made an effort to look anywhere but the leg.

Summer seemed to notice Red's discomfort. "Well, guess you'll have a _leg up_ on the Grimm now, huh?" Red, unable to contain herself, snorted in laughter, nearly taking a lungful of smoothie in the process. Erde busted out laughing, not expecting the pun. Summer chuckled, clearly pleased with herself.

"That was both the best and worst pun I've ever heard." Red told Summer, coughing softly to rid herself of the inhaled smoothie.

"Well you needed to loosen up," Summer slurped down the rest of her smoothie and passed the cup to Erde, who had finished with her fit of laughter. Summer checked her Scroll, and nearly cursed. "Hey, sorry to drink and run, but we're due at Signal in an hour." Erde just smiled politely and waved goodbye as the two women exited the shop. Red glanced down at her chrono, which read 9:50 AM. They managed to get past a crowd that had gathered around a TV, which was broadcasting a fight between two young Hunters. Summer and Red eventually found their way back outside Mercy and onto the dirt road once more. Red was almost sorry to go, but she could always go back. They approached the crossroads shortly, this time no sign of Art or his wife Fuscia. The road split off at a sharp angle towards Signal. The coast was clear, so they made haste towards the school.

"She was… interesting." Red broke the silence.

A small smile found its way to Summer's face. "We went to Beacon together. She was on team LEMN with my friends Myrtle and Nick." Summer's smile turned downward at that thought. "They both died in the same accident that took Erde's leg. It was a few years after Glenn." Summer elaborated. A loud, sharp crack from in the woods set both women on edge. It sounded like something incredibly large was moving through the forest. Closer to them. Red had the Transistor out in an instant, Summer got into a guarded stance. Through the trees, they could make a massive white shape headed towards the road. With a bone-chilling screech, a Deathstalker at least ten meters long emerged. The entire top of it was covered with bone plating, spikes jutting upward where the legs met the body.

"An Obitus," Summer hissed. "I don't have that kind of firepower on me." Summer slowly retreated from the massive scorpion. "You're gonna have to blast it." Red knew what she meant and immediately triggered SuperUser. The power came to Red easily. Not hesitating for a second, she struck the scorpion with an area effect Kill(). The Obitus vanished into the orb of light. Red dumped more power into the attack, not wanting to leave it alive. After five seconds of her sustained attack, she released her hold on SuperUser. The Transistor started to fall, before catching itself in midair. Red fell to a knee, breathing heavily. The light show slowly dissipated, leaving a fifteen-meter crater at the edge of the tree line. Inside the crater, the Obitus struggled to move. Its body twitched sporadically. The bone plated stinger had been disintegrated completely, leaving a smoldering wound that was slowly sublimating. Red got to her feet and aimed the Transistor at the dying Grimm, letting loose with a Ping(Breach(Load())). The blast caved in the weakened skull of the Obitus, ending its life. Both women breathed a sigh of relief

"What was that thing? You called it an Obitus?" Red inquired, placing the Transistor tentatively back in her sheath.

Summer nodded, "Yeah. Nasty class of Deathstalker. Old and smart. They usually aren't on Patch though. Just the mainland. Must've been hiding here for a while." Summer didn't let her guard down, but they continued towards Signal. The remainder of the journey was thankfully uninterrupted. Signal was an imposing structure. Curved archways spaced two meters apart set the main path to the school apart from the other paths. Other than the archways, there really wasn't much in the way of decoration. It had several buildings around three stories tall. The brickwork was painted a dark gold color. In the center of the school was a large white half dome structure. All in all, the school was an impressive place. The forest had been cleared for about half a kilometer around the perimeter of the school. An imposing man was pacing around the courtyard, talking on his scroll.

"I don't care Headmaster, he broke fifteen of my AK-130's before leaving." The man shouted into the Scroll. "He isn't here at Signal and he wasn't at Beacon. Find him." He brusquely ended the call before shoving the Scroll in his breast pocket. It wasn't until then that he noticed the spectators to his call. "Miss Rose." He greeted curtly. "I'm not certain if we've met. I'm Colonel James Ironwood." He extended a hand to the User.

"I'm Red Aurorae." She reciprocated the handshake. "Summer and I are on patrol." Ironwood nodded, clearly still partially distracted with whatever his call was about.

"Miss Rose have you seen Qrow anywhere? That bird for brains trashed 10,000Ł worth of androids and he's gonna pay for it." Red stifled a laugh at his predicament.

Summer was evidently just as amused, if her incredulous look was anything to go by. "Not since yesterday. He left citing 'important business for Ozpin'." Summer explained to the irate Colonel, her response doing nothing to soothe his pride.

"I suppose if he's to check in anywhere it will be at Beacon." Ironwood slicked back his hair with a disappointed sigh. "Thank you, Miss Rose. Miss Aurorae." He nodded at each woman in turn before moving off towards a fancy looking bullhead with a stylized circle around a dot, a rapier piercing both symbols from above. The bullhead whirred to life and immediately made for the east towards Vale.

"He seemed angry at Qrow." Red noted as they continued towards the half-dome structure. Summer gave a so-so gesture.

"Qrow and James aren't on good terms. Ever since Qrow defeated him in the Vytal festival during our third year. They've had a rivalry ever since. Qrow thinks it's his part time job to piss off James." Summer shook her head in disappointment. "No matter how many times everyone tells him to stop, he just keeps doing it." They approached a door that lead to a staircase in the back of the half dome. "C'mon. The headmaster should be up here." They walked up a staircase that led to a room at the apex of the dome. Summer knocked on the door thrice, and a deep commanding voice beckoned them in.

"Come in," The door opened to reveal a tanned man doing some paperwork at a spartanly decorated desk.

"Just checking in, Headmaster Rainart." Summer spoke. "We also have a report from our patrol." The headmaster gestured to a quartet of comfy looking chairs arrayed around his desk.

"What's wrong?" He started, before adding. "And please, drop the formalities Summer. School hasn't started yet and there aren't any students in my office forcing us to keep up appearances." The headmaster stacked the paperwork that was sprawled across his desk into a neat pile, then folded his hands and devoted his full attention to the two women in front of him. Red noticed a plaque that read 'Headmaster Hazel Rainart'.

With a roll of her eyes, Summer relented. "Fine." Summer plopped down into one of the chairs, Red following suit but in a more composed manner. "So, how's Gretchen?" The headmaster's expression turned sour at the mention of that name.

"Still insistent on going to Beacon next year, despite both mine and our parent's protests." He grumbled, shaking his head in disappointment. "It seems the harder I try to get her not to go, the more she wants to."

"Don't worry," Summer smiled warmly at the Headmaster. "Ozpin knows what he's doing. She's a tough girl." Red thought that it was a valiant attempt to console him, but it seemed his mind was set.

"We'll see," He said disbelievingly. "Now what happened out on your patrol that you had to come see me personally?" The headmaster's calm gaze seemed to bore through both women.

"We encountered an Obitus on the way here from Mercy. It was just past the fork." Summer's tone turned serious. Red had no idea the different types of Grimm save for what kinds there were, but evidently what they encountered shouldn't have happened.

Hazel's reaction was almost instant. His shoulders, neck, and jawline tensed. "Was it alone?" Hazel's tone had changed as well. The bitterness of their discussion about his sister faded completely, replaced with concern.

"As far as we could tell, yes." Red spoke up, not wanting Summer to do all the talking. "Once it was dead we weren't attacked by any other Grimm. The remainder of our trip here from the crossroad was quiet." Hazel seemed to stare into the User's soul. Red was tempted to shy away from his gaze, but remained steadfast.

"I'll inform Ozpin," Hazel pulled upward on a thin strip of metal on his desk, revealing a holographic display and a keyboard. "Thank you for bringing this to my attention. I'll also make sure to log you into the computer." He began typing away at his terminal, his large fingers nearly a blur. "Hopefully your trip back to Hallow will be quiet as well. The VAF are mostly finished clearing the skies above Patch and the number of Grimm encounters are dropping across the board. It seems that this year it will be over early." A small smile found its way to his face. "Good luck out there." He finished with a nod.

Summer stood and gave Hazel a salute. "Thank you, Headmaster." Red departed with a single nod. The trip back downstairs was quiet. Red had learned a lot from that exchange. The large Grimm they encountered was indeed an anomaly, and that Grimm got a lot bigger and badder than what she had killed. Now that she had a wider scale on what she was dealing with when it came to said Grimm something wasn't adding up. Everything she had read pointed towards no one knowing where they came from, save for a few religions that claimed they knew. One particularly weird article she read claimed that the Grimm were actually from another planet and when the sublimate they're returning back to said planet. She had dismissed that claim halfway through the first paragraph. The one thing she did know was that they were frighteningly similar to the Process. But where the Process destroyed through trying to remake in their image, these Grimm sought just to pursue death and destruction of humanity.

Red decided to test the waters. "How do Grimm interact with normal animals?" Her sudden question took Summer by surprise if her slight misstep was anything to go by.

"What do you mean?" Was the Huntress' curt reply.

"Like, do they attack them on sight as they do humans? Do they ignore them? Do they hunt down for food?" Red listed, her curiosity on these Grimm piqued.

Summer frowned in thought. "Well, according to Peter, they ignore everything except humans, unless they're hunting. Not that Grimm need to eat. All recorded studies show that Grimm can go weeks and months without food. It seems they hunt for sport. However, they have been spotted eating human corpses in the aftermath of attacks." Summer's tension was palatable. She was clearly uncomfortable with this line of discussion.

It was Red's turn to frown. That was not an answer she was comfortable with. "So, they only target humans." She stated grimly. That all but _screamed_ some malevolent power with a grudge against humanity to the User. "Is there some sort of high intelligence governing their moves?" Her question caused Summer to twitch. To Red, that was all the tell she needed to confirm her theory. Something was controlling the Grimm that the powers that be knew about, and based on the fact that the Grimm have been around for centuries, it was likely at least that old, if not older.

"They have been known to be commanded by the more powerful Grimm, but apart from that no." Summer denied. Red was confused by her denial, but she figured that if Summer didn't want to talk about it, then she wouldn't pry. Today was already an ordeal for the Huntress. At Red's silence, Summer chanced another glance back at the User.

"How much further is it to Hallow?" Red changed the subject, which made Summer visibly relax.

"We're about two more kilometers out." She replied, glancing at her chrono. "Mayor Bonne should give us the word on whether we can head back home or not." The distant gunfire that was ever present in the early morning had all but died out to a few scattered bursts. That, and the crunching of dirt and gravel beneath their boots were the only sounds heard as the two travelled towards Hallow.

On one hand, the long trip gave her time to think about her plans for the future, and whether or not those plans included turning whatever controlled the Grimm into a fine red paste. On the other, it gave her time to relax and take in the sights of the closest thing she'd ever seen to the Country. It was a beautiful forest; dark green leaves, deep brown bark. Animals and insects could be seen going to and fro. She could definitely get used to this life. She hoped that Blue was enjoying himself as much as she was. Red suppressed a sad sigh at the thought of her deceased lover, this time he was truly gone instead of just trapped in her weapon. She pushed the thoughts from her mind.

Boredom was beginning to set in over their long trip. With a flick of her wrist, the Transistor left her grip and began a series of intricate flips and twirls in midair. She spelled out various words in cursive, like 'Goldwalk' and 'Empty Set'. She was halfway through spelling Blue's name when her display drew the attention of her companion.

"Holy…" Summer stared, more than a little awestruck, at her display. With a sheepish grin, Red returned the Transistor to her grip and lowered it to her side.

"Sorry. Guess I got carried away." Red hid her blush and resumed her lookout duty.

"How were you doing that?" Summer asked, her interest in the User now much greater than it had been.

"I just… do. For lack of a better definition. I think about what I want it to do, and it does." Red released her grip on her weapon once more and willed it to perform a series of slashes against an invisible enemy. The weapon, more deftly than most humans could, cut the air three times in quick succession, before returning to an idle pose that matched their walking pace. "It's almost like an extra limb to me at this point." To emphasize her words, the Transistor rested tip first on the ground before it began to waddle forward, as if walking. It wasn't nearly enough to match their pace, so after a moment Red made it come back to her.

"That's kind of like how Aura works." Summer explained. "Hunters control their Aura like a muscle. They stress it, give it time to rest, and over time it grows. The more it grows the more we have control over it." Summer's armored hand glowed a pale white. After a brief moment, the glow moved, more centered on her fingers. Another moment and it was just her pointer finger bathed in the white light. Lastly, just the tip of her finger, before the light vanished completely. "The longer a Hunter trains, the more control they have over their Aura. Even more so for those with Semblances that rely on intense Aura use. Tai's Semblance lets him increase his Aura reserves when he takes damage, even going over his normal maximum. The downside is that his passive aura is incredibly weak and can break easily, but it's gotten to the point where he can keep his active Aura up indefinitely in combat. With this he can amplify the amount of power flowing through his body. It lets him move incredibly fast and hit with literal tons of force."

Red elected to try to unlock her Aura as soon as she could. Stuff like this would complement her style immensely. "What's yours?" The only indication that Red got was a small smirk before her friend vanished in place, leaving only a few white rose petals. The User glanced around, before noticing Summer grinning at her from 25 meters further up on the path. Then in the blink of an eye she was back, the only indication that she had gone anywhere was a scattering of dissolving white petals.

"The simplest way to describe mine is speed. In reality, it's so much more than that. I can move any part of my body at that speed, within reason." Red suddenly found a finger resting on the tip of her nose. Recoiling slightly, Red gave a hum of interest at the Huntress. "With a specific application of my Semblance, it lets my weapons cut through things that they have no real right to be able to cut through. Grimm plating is seemingly the one exception to that." They had been so caught up in their conversation, that they had reached Hallow without even realizing it. Hallow's gate was wide open, lots of foot traffic and vehicles visible through the gap. The coming and going of the rotor Bullhead's had ceased, and the stockpile of Dust was already being loaded back onto trailers to move. It seemed they would be getting an early day. Mayor Bonne was spotted overseeing the loading, his face a mask of relief that the volatile substance was finally going to be out of his town.

"Hey mayor!" Summer shouted at the man, waving her arm frantically. The mayor glanced over to the women, a smile immediately showing itself.

"Summer, just the Huntress I wanted to see." The mayor quickly strode over to said Huntress. His use of her official title didn't go unnoticed by either of them. Clearly, he wanted Summer to do something for him before she could retire for the day.

Summer raised a hand to placate the mayor. "What's wrong?" The mayor's brief smile had been replaced by a harried look.

"We need a veteran Huntress to lead the convoy on the route to Mercy. All S Rank Hunters in Hallow had to go to the mainland. A pack of Goliaths came within a kilometer of the southwestern gate and the Council wanted everyone on stand-by in case they decided to attack. All I've got protecting the convoy are PMO's and Hunter trainees. I want you there as a precaution." The man glanced at his open scroll, frowning slightly. "I'd consider it a personal favor." Bonne added hastily once he saw Summer's look of disapproval.

Summer rolled her eyes. "Alright, I'll go. But you'd better have two boxes of assorted baked goods from Cran's place when I get back." The mayor nodded vigorously, relief painting his face. Summer glanced at Red and beckoned her towards her with a nod. "Head back home, let Tai know what's up and that I'll be back in a couple hours." Red nodded affirmatively. "Catch you later." Summer waved and headed off towards the massive trucks loaded with shipping crates of Dust. The mayor had already left, off to some other part of the city.

A wing of fighter jets flew by a short distance away, the low rumble drawing Red's attention. The sleek aircraft, five in total, were flying in a slanted line towards the city of Vale. Beyond that, a massive ship dwarfed the miniscule by comparison jets. It had a boxy frame, with tri tipped wings pointing backwards from the rear of the ship. The jets flew over it, and seeming like a giant woken from its slumber, the ship moved. It faced northward, and accelerated. The jets looped back and slowed down, taking up a staggered formation over the top of the ship. She guessed that they were Atlas ships since that was the general direction of their lands.

As the aircraft began to shrink into the distance, Red turned and headed towards the gate that would take her back to Summer's house. Her walk was short, only partially occupied with worry for Summer. She would have help from dozens of people and from the Patch Militia Organization. In minutes, the familiar façade of the house came into view, a small stream of smoke billowing from the chimney on the roof. A small, blonde mane was visible from the window just to the right of the door. Within moments, the door flew open and Yang burst out.

"Where's mom?" She asked, a slight amount of worry in her voice.

Red's reply was instant, figuring that this would be the first thing that the kids would ask about. "She's escorting a convoy to Mercy, then she'll be home. Said it wouldn't take more than a couple hours." Yang visibly deflated at that news. "I believe that she also mentioned something about picking up a package from a place called 'Cran's' when she came back." Yang's reaction was instant. A sharp gasp, mirrored by one inside, undoubtedly Ruby, cut the air.

"Ooooh!" Ruby cheered from the doorway. "Cran makes the best brownies!" Ruby was hopping up and down in anticipation. Yang rushed inside and up the stairs, shouting about 'cleaning their room before mom gets home'. Ruby sped after her, leaving Red and Tai alone in the living room.

"Summer told me what happened. With the Obitus." Tai stated, not looking away from the TV. A newsman was speaking in front of a picture of a large vaguely person shaped machine. The text read 'Atlas unveils new robotic soldiers, Atlesian Knight 120-B.' Red frowned, remembering how large the Grimm was. It was nearly the size of the head of a Spine.

"Yeah, didn't have too much trouble with it though. I've killed bigger." Red stated vaguely. And she had. Spines averaged between a hundred and a hundred fifty meters long. They were tough as hell out in the open, moving at speeds that something their size had no right to. In Cloudbank, they could access the command network directly and move through that. It was how the first Spine tried to ambush her. When Tai didn't reply, it seemed that her sudden terse silence went unnoticed.

"These new androids won't last five minutes against the Grimm," A brusque voice called down from the top of the stairs. Qrow was leaning against the railing, a small smirk present on his face.

"Ironwood was looking for you," Red's voice made the Hunter start, his mouth turned downward into a frown.

"He can keep lookin'" The dark man shot back. "They were in my way." He added, knowing that Ironwood had told her why he was looking for Qrow. The dark colored Hunter sounded incredibly pleased with himself.

"They're always in your way," Tai spoke up, glancing upward at his friend. The two shared a look, one that Red had no idea what to make of. After a moment, everything returned to normal. Tai resumed watching TV, and Qrow began descending the stairs in full. Red took a seat in one of the comfy chairs, resting the Transistor against the arm. Qrow wandered into the kitchen, to get some food, Red presumed. The TV was showing a scene where row upon row of AK-120-B's was marching across an airfield in Atlas – she presumed it was Atlas, as there was snow on the ground and mountains in the background- in perfect formation. The camera switched back to the newsman, and the story changed. Red lost interest in the program, as the caster had begun discussing stocks. She opened her scroll and began browsing the internet, sites about the different kinds of Grimm in particular. She discovered an eBook, written by Peter Port, that listed the dozens of different types and classes of known Grimm that had been recorded. It was a fairly cheap book, so she bought it and began reading. Like Hunters, Grimm also had rankings based on their threat level.

Beowolves were, surprisingly, not the weakest Grimm. They tended to come in packs of two to four dozen, usually led by an alpha, and were ranked as a D grade on the scale, alongside Ursa Minors and something called a Creep. The description of it alone was enough to give Red goosebumps. They looked a lot like Cluckers on steroids. Bipedal, tailed, incredibly fast and agile. They, like Beowolves, tended to bunch up in packs led by an Alpha. She swiped through the book until she found the page she was looking for. Obitus, a class B Grimm. Most commonly found in mainland Vale and Vacuo, they were Deathstalkers that had lived for over half of a century or more. According to the book, conventional arms had almost no effect on the extremely tough outer shell of the Grimm, but their underbelly was weak to attacks. The joints where the legs came together, the area where the stinger connects with the tail, and its mouth were common avenues of attack from above for Hunters. An Obitus could defensively curl into a ball like a Boarbatusk and flee from an unfavorable match.

Grimm adopting the more powerful traits of another Grimm. A fact that in and of itself shouldn't have given her any reason to worry, but Summer's reaction to her question stuck in her mind. Grimm were obviously specialized to hunt specific targets. Ursa's to handle large groups of unarmed and unarmored people, based on the amount of punishment they could take from conventional arms. Beowolves to tackle lone targets through pack mentality, Nevermore and Griffons for aerial support. It was like a well-balanced army. What one type of Grimm couldn't handle, another would be able to easily. She skimmed further into the eBook, to the S grade and above Grimm. The articles were getting less and less detailed as she went on, presumably that very few people had met such powerful Grimm and lived to tell about it. There was one Grimm that rated double S, a dragon. There had only been one sighting of it about two hundred years ago, in mainland Vale of all places. It tore apart seven villages before disappearing completely. No one knew where it was to this day, despite exhaustive searching for it.

"What'cha reading?" A gravelly voice asked from just over her shoulder, spooking the User. Red looked back to find Qrow finishing off the last few bites of a sandwich.

"About Grimm." Red held her scroll up to show him the book. He read over it, popping the last bit of sandwich into his mouth. Qrow read over the page for a few seconds before moving away from her and moving to sit down in a chair in the corner of the room, placing his feet on the ottoman.

When Tai glared at him, undoubtedly because of where his feet were, Qrow let out a choked laugh, "Anyway, where's Summer? Ozpin wanted to check in with her about something." Qrow turned his gaze to the User and stared hard at Red, whom refused to flinch away.

"She's with a convoy bound for Mercy. The mayor personally requested she go." Red retorted.

Qrow raised one eyebrow at her reply. "And why aren't you with her?" His unspoken question rang loud and clear. 'Why isn't Summer keeping an eye on you?'

"She told me to come home to let Tai and the kids know." Red replied, already tired of this line of questioning, and went back to reading her book. Secretly, she was observing the other swordsman out of the corner of her eye. He had reclined back into the chair, arms folded behind his head.

"Whatever," He grumbled. A moment later he stood up, grabbed his weapon, and walked out the door. Red stared at where he left, utterly confused by the man that seemingly held distrust for her.

"What's his problem?" Red grumbled, closing her scroll. Tai rubbed his eyes tiredly.

"He's just protective of Summer." Tai spoke easily, not dissuading Red's hunch in the slightest. "Plus, he isn't exactly trusting of that performance you put on yesterday."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean," Tai started, adjusting his pose so he was facing towards the User. "That most Hunters can't easily generate that level of power on their own, let alone with Dust. Some of them have a semblance that can get close to that, but that level of destruction that a single person is capable of? That's gonna draw attention, and not the good kind." Red's mind immediately turned towards the Grimm. She had already all but confirmed that something was a driving force behind the literal hate beasts, but this was more evidence pointed towards it.

Red decided to test the waters a bit. "You mean that whatever is controlling the Grimm is gonna start to take an interest in me." She said softly. To her disappointment, Tai didn't react in the slightest. Perhaps he was less easily rattled than Summer was. She had thought that line of questioning a dead end, until Tai spoke again.

"Yes." He confirmed. Red's eyes widened slightly. So, she had been right all along. "But not entirely. There's more than just that to think about. If word gets out to the wrong people about what you can do, there isn't much that Ozpin can do to stop the Vale Council and the Grand Council from investigating." Tai had gone above and beyond Red's expectations when it came to information. She hated being in the dark about things. It was why she dug up every shred of detail she could about the Camerata's research on the Process after the Collapse. Royce had done ample research on their capabilities and vulnerabilities, most of which was stored in Fairview. She thought for a brief moment that she should have cleansed Bracket tower first to access the research that was stored there, before she remembered that that would have broken the quarantine that she had on the rest of the Process.

"So, I'm gonna guess that this 'supreme overlord of the Grimm' isn't common knowledge." Red presumed. Tai was about to reply, when his scroll chimed. He opened it, and Summer's voice came through the device.

"Hey, Tai. I'm just finishing up at Mercy and then I'm getting a ride from Glynda back to our house." She sounded slightly winded, as if she had been fighting.

Tai noticed this too. "How was your trip?" Summer gave a short laugh through the scroll.

"Busy. You'd better whip these kids into shape this coming year, hun. They were jumping at their shadows the whole way and we had to stop five times because they kept thinking that they saw Grimm." Summer let out an exasperated sigh. "Did Red make it back okay?" Tai turned the scroll around to face the User. Summer's face was slightly dirtied and her hair was messed up, giving her a worn appearance.

"Qrow was here," Red informed her friend, which made Summer grimace.

"James is gonna be mad," She groused. A shout from behind her soured the look on Summer's face even more. "Well, I'll see you soon. Tell Ruby and Yang that I'll have something sweet for them." With that Summer ended the call. Tai closed his scroll and deposited it back in his breast pocket.

"Well, guess now we wait," Tai leaned back and grabbed the remote, flipping through the TV's many channels.

"So, back on the topic of Grimm," Red interjected. "Where can I find a good spot in the forest that I won't be disturbed by any?"

Fifteen minutes later, she was at the spot that Tai had pointed out on her scroll. It was a rather imposing Mesa, the climb alone took her another half hour, but the view when she reached the top was worth it. Nearly the entire island of Patch was laid out in front of her, in the distance she could see the browns and reds of the town of Hallow, even further beyond that was the white blob where Signal was. Further still was a mass of grey and white that signified Mercy. The needlelike tower visible even at this distance. To the east of Signal, on the other side of the forest, was another small town on the coast. Large ships could be seen in a nearly perpetual line going to and from what looked like a scaled-up version of that town on the main continent of Solitas. Red finally got her first good look at Vale properly.

Large didn't even begin to describe just how overly massive the City was. It rivaled Cloudbank in sheer volume, but what Cloudbank had in height, Vale had in width. Massive districts that a person could easily discern what purpose they served were separated by a winding river. In the south, a large swath of green and brown was visible. She couldn't make out much other than color, but what she did see was a massive grey line that surrounded the city. It dwarfed the wall at Mercy by several orders of magnitude. The area immediately beyond the wall was drier, dirty, dead. It seemed that the Grimm didn't allow for much landscaping. Further out, though, a large green forest swept across as far as she could see. To the north of Vale, a red blob of color stood out. That must be the Forever Fall forest. Red shook herself from her sightseeing and returned to the original purpose that she came her for.

Taking a cross-legged position, she triggered SuperUser and closed her eyes. The power came easily once more, greeting her like an old friend. The warmth of her power brushed the chilly air away like a blanket. Red cleared her mind, trying to focus on unlocking her Aura. She knew it wouldn't be _that_ simple, but she had to try. The last thing the User felt was the world falling away.

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A/N: Yes I'm taking the familial semblance thing into account for both Summer and Tai. Until we learn more it's all we can do. Thank you for reading my story and please don't be afraid to leave a review if you see something that either interests you or bugs you.


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N:** Sorry for the long delay, I scrapped three separate chapters before settling on this version. We finally hit the 1k view mark!

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Red realized immediately that she was not on Patch. The air was thick, heavy, like it was when she was inside a Process infested building. She creaked her eyes open, a deep purple sky, twinkling with hundreds of thousands of starts greeted her.

" _We're not gonna get away with this, are we Red?_ " That voice made the blood freeze in her veins. It was Blue's words, but not in his voice. It was the soft, nasally voice of Royce Bracket. She sat up, noticing that she was wearing her dress from _that night_. She was in Cloudbank. She stared around, dumbstruck by her surroundings. The Transistor didn't respond to her calls. Panic flooded through her, she leapt to her feet, nearly tripping on her heels. With a snarl, she broke the damnable things off and sprinted as fast as she could to-

Oh no.

It was _exactly_ like that night. Blue's still warm body leaning against the median, his voice echoing through the Transistor like it always had. She rushed over, knelt in front of him. She started to speak, but no words would come. The only sounds she could produce were choked gasps. Blue's words blurred into nothingness in the face of her thoughts. How did she end up back here? Is she inside the Transistor? What the hell is going on?

"Stay with me, Red." Blue's voice snapped her out of her stupor. "We gotta get outta here, skip town." Red's heart pounded in her chest. She had to escape whatever this nightmare was. A dull, metallic, grinding noise that sounded vaguely like a roar reverberated through the city. Red recognized it immediately as a Spine. Blue's voice took on a drunken, lethargic tone. She tried to force herself to speak, but still no words came out. The sudden feeling of cold stone on her shins made her look down. She was now dressed in her battle attire, the torn section of her dress tickling her skin lightly.

" _You're still there, and I'm still here… you're still there, and I'm still here…"_ Blue's voice sounded as bad as ever. His body still had the Transistor resting inside it. With a resolve she didn't know she had, Red pulled the Transistor out, the metal clanking heavily on the concrete. It felt like it weighed ten times heavier than it normally did. The sky flashed white. Red now found herself in the final battleground between Royce and herself. Royce stood across from her, his façade a mask of indifference. Her blood boiled in her veins, her hatred of him not having diminished in the slightest over the last three years. Without even thinking, she activated Turn(). Royce froze in place, as expected.

"Did you really think it would be that easy?" Royce's voice chided her, and Turn() deactivated itself. Royce made no move towards her, so she tried a second time. This time, there was nothing. No trigger, no small tug on that warmth deep inside her. Nothing. She raised the Transistor and-

-that was gone too. She was holding nothing. Royce spun his copy of the Transistor almost lazily, a small smirk on his face. "This is what happens when you take what isn't yours, Red." He slowly strode towards her. Red's fear and loathing grew every passing second. She took a hesitant step backward, then another.

She was falling. The air whizzed by her face, almost painfully. She had nothing to catch herself on. The sky around her was pitch white, almost blinding. Red tried in vain to summon the Transistor, but nothing happened.

" _You know what has to be done_ ," Asher's voice whispered this time.

" _Yes, you do, Red_ ," Grant.

" _You were always a star,_ " Wave Tennegan's suave voice was next.

" _You beat the Camerata, you can do anything,_ " Lillian Platt was next.

" _Your next great adventure awaits,_ " Preston Moyle.

" _This isn't real, Red, wake up,"_ Niola Chein.

" _You're strong enough to beat this deception,"_ Shomar Shasburg.

" _This world is your canvas, you, the artist,_ " Farrah Yon-Dale.

" _Learn from the past, shape the future,_ " Bailey Gilande.

" _All the clues you need are right in front of you,_ " Henter Jallaford.

" _Sometimes you have to take a risk, and hope for the best,_ " Olmarq.

" _Time for you to make a statement,_ " Maximilias Darzi.

" _I'm sorry,_ " Sybil. Her real voice, not warped by the Process.

" _I love you,_ " Blue. The ground was coming up impossibly fast, leaving her no time to stop. So, she woke up.

Red gasped deeply, coming out of what seemed like a lucid dream. She remembered their faces, their voices. Each and every person that she had absorbed with the Transistor. The sky, once a bright blue, was now inky black and speckled with stars. She glanced at her scroll, the time read 7:51. She had been sitting cross-legged for nearly eight hours. Her knees protested the effort it took to stand up. She went to wipe the sweat from her forehead when she noticed an arc of electricity leap across her skin. How was she still in SuperUser after such an extended period of time? Red deactivated the skill, and ever loyal, the transistor hovered next to her, waiting.

"I've gotta get back there fast." She whispered to herself, both to give herself an objective and to make sure that she still had her voice. She placed the Transistor back in its holster, and set off. Unfortunately, she forgot that she was on top of a ten-meter-high mesa. The familiar feeling of falling enveloped her once more, so much more real than it had been in the dream. Without thinking, she used Jaunt() to close the distance to the ground in the blink of an eye. Her landing sent a spike of pain through her leg, but was quickly dulled to almost nothing. Within minutes she reached Summer's house, windows alight in the dark night.

She quickly made her way inside, the night air chilled her to the bone. Inside, the house was comfortably warm. A lit fire crackled softly. Summer, now cleaned up and clad in a plain shirt and shorts, raised an eyebrow at the User. Tai was seated next to Summer, an arm resting over her shoulders.

"And just where have you been," Summer asked curiously. Red blushed deeply, feeling like a kid caught getting into the cookie jar.

"I lost track of time." Red stated as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Summer smirked at Red. "Clearly," Summer snuggled closer to Tai, whom didn't protest in the slightest. "There's some brownies in the refrigerator and leftover chicken and dumplings in the oven." As if summoned by the mention of food, Red's stomach chose that moment to violently assert its presence in the room. Her blush intensified and she quickly made her way into the kitchen. Inside the oven, a prepared plate of the most delicious smelling chicken and dumplings lay in the center. She snatched out the plate and sat down at the table, a fork already waiting for her. The User dug in, practically wolfing down the food. Before she realized it, she had eaten half of what was on the plate. She moved to take another bite, but curiously found that her fork was disfigured. It had bent at a ninety-degree angle where she was holding it. Red knew that it was a perfectly normal fork when she picked it up, so why was it suddenly not? Summer picked that moment to walk into the room, immediately noticing Red's predicament.

"Umm, I don't know what happened?" Red tried weakly. Upon Summer giving her a flat stare, she hastily bent the fork back into its regular shape. Almost. It still had a small indentation where it had bent, but other than that it was perfectly straight.

"You seem… off," Summer stated as she took a seat across from Red. "Did something happen while you were out?" Her question brought Red's strange lucid dream to mind.

"I was meditating with the Transistor, and I had this super weird dream. It was like I was reliving my memories of the Collapse, but all at once." Red strained, trying to remember more, but failing. The dream had faded from her mind. "I remember talking with people." She tried, mouth twisting with effort. "It seems like the harder I try to remember, the more I forget." She resumed eating, at a much more sedate pace this time.

"I can feel aura coming from you," Summer whispered. "It's faint, but it's there." Any thoughts that Red had up until that moment were gone.

She unlocked her aura? Had this been what the dream was about? Red leaned back in the chair, flabbergasted. She had unlocked her aura, whether it was through that weird dream, through using her willpower to wake up from said weird dream, or something else altogether. She didn't know.

"Tomorrow, I'm gonna help you through some control exercises. The later in life someone's aura is unlocked, the harder it is to gain control of it." The Huntress gestured at the damaged fork. "For now, all I can say is take it slow, don't rush anything and be gentle if you have to grab something. Your aura is reinforcing your body to an extreme degree right now to cope with the trauma of being unlocked. You're gonna feel extremely energetic tomorrow, which is why it's the perfect time to begin training your aura."

"I am pretty wiped," Red stifled a yawn, placing the fork down on the mostly empty plate of food and leaning back to relax. "Did you have any trouble after you phoned us?" Red asked, trying to change the subject away from her unintentional destruction of an innocent fork.

"I stopped and got another smoothie," Summer spoke easily, smiling fondly at the memory of the fruity beverage. "Other than that, it was pretty quiet. Grimm left everyone alone on the way there and on the way back I only found a random Ursa that didn't even try to attack me." Upon seeing Red's confused look, she elaborated "It was crossing the road a way down from me, never even tried to look my way. I managed to catch it by surprise."

"By the way," Summer interjected. "The mayor wanted to speak with you regarding today's earnings." Upon Red's confused look, she elaborated. "He claims that since you aren't a registered Huntress, he's obligated to pay you for today's work. He also said you had some back pay from when you annihilated that Taijitu nest a couple days ago." Wordlessly, Red opened her scroll and checked the balance on the account that Summer had opened for her. It read '11,304Ł'. She blinked at the amount. That was more than triple she had received from a full day of clearing bounties from the board. After purchasing all of her gear and the food, the 3,000Ł she got from the first day of work was dwindled down to just a little more than 500.

"This seems excessive." Red started to protest, but Summer gestured back to the scroll. It seemed that she had two deposits into her account. One listed as HTL with the unabbreviated words 'Hallow Trust and Loan' next to it. This amount was 6,000Ł. There was a second deposit from S. Rose for 4,800Ł. She glanced up at her friend, whom had a smirk she'd be hard pressed to match. "Why?" was the only word Red could speak.

"I couldn't possibly imagine how hard it must be for you, to be so disjointed from everything you knew. I wanted to help you out, in whatever way I can." Summer elaborated. Then with a scoff, added "It's not like it'd be hard for me to make that money back anyway. Hunting is a dangerous, if profitable career. I could retire right now and have enough of a pension to put Yang and Ruby through Beacon and beyond." Summer noticed that her explanation hadn't done much to placate the User.

A familiar gravelly voice startled both women. "Hey Summer," Qrow was peeking into the kitchen, a grim look on his face. "I need to speak with you." His eyes roamed to Red for a brief moment. "Alone." Red wearily went back to her dinner, and Summer wordlessly got up and left the room with Qrow. Red continued eating, but a nagging feeling told her to investigate. She decided to ignore that feeling and settled for depositing her plate in the sink. A quick stretch and she settled onto the couch with Tai. A quick glance at him showed that he had fallen asleep, his head lolling to one side. The program on currently was a news show, the reporter being in some place called Menagerie.

" _This is Ghira Belladonna, current leader of the Faunus Rights Organization._ " Behind the slender female reported was an incredibly tall man with hair covering his chest and arms, thick enough to honestly be called fur. " _Mr. Belladonna, what is your opinion on the recent attacks by the SDC against Faunus protesters?"_ The woman held the mic up to Ghira's face, an achievement in its own right since he stood nearly twice as tall as her. Before the man could speak however, a loud shout from outside drew Red's attention. She cautiously crept up to the slightly ajar door, peering out to locate the source of the scream.

"-it, Qrow! I know." Summer's partially muffled voice rang out. "She's a guest here, until we can figure out what to do with her. You need to lay off of her." Summer's voice was dark, and angry.

"I'm saying that if Salem ever finds out about her, then her coming after you or Ruby is the least of our worries. If _she_ gets a hold of that woman, then her power poses a threat to every kingdom, not just Vale." Qrow's retort was sharp, and hushed. Red could practically feel Summer's anger at the dark-haired man.

"I don't know if you noticed, but she _already_ poses a threat to the world." Summer muttered sarcastically, before adding. "What would _you_ do with her then, huh?" Summer asked rhetorically. "Send her off to Atlas? They're big on human experimentation, aren't they? Or, maybe we should just kill her? Would that satisfy you?" Summer's words scared Red deeply, despite her sarcastic tone.

Qrow let out a groan of frustration. "No, that's not what I'm saying. Salem is already coming after you for the silver eyes, your family doesn't need an even bigger target on their back."

"She killed an Obitus today." Summer informed. "Took her less than 10 seconds. She just blasted it with that energy and then finished it off with another attack. It never stood a _chance_ against her. I'd have honestly been screwed if she hadn't been there. I left my heavy weapons at home, figuring that I wouldn't need them. Besides that, you know as well as I do that Grimm of that caliber don't just turn up on Patch for no reason. That was _her_ , you and I both know it." Summer's tone at the end of that conversation turned sour.

"So, there's no way in Hell that Salem doesn't already know about her then, huh?" Qrow said softly, resigned. He let out a weary sigh. "Well, I suppose the best we can do is to-" He suddenly went silent. Red pressed her ear closer to the door, eager to listen, when she fell backwards as the door opened. She blinked owlishly at Summer and Qrow looking down at her, serious looks on their faces. Red flushed with embarrassment, picking herself up off of the ground.

"I heard yelling, and…" She trailed off, unsure about what to say. Summer's expression softened, and she walked past and plopped on the couch next to Tai, waking him up in the process. The blonde blinked the sleep away, before noticing the tense air in the room. He noticed Qrow and Summer looking at Red, a scowl and bemused look on each of their respective faces.

"I forgot to ask, how did your trip to go?" Tai spoke through a yawn. The black-haired man had wordlessly moved to take a seat in the chair next to the TV.

Qrow pulled out his scroll and began typing away on it. "Fine, Oz wanted me to follow up on a lead about Winter over near the Vale-Vacuo border. Turned out it was just some chick with a wind-based semblance. Tomorrow I'm to head to Mistral to deliver Spring to Raven. Why he still trusts her I'll never know." That last part confused Red. Hadn't they been teammates at Beacon? Tai seemed to notice her confused look and answered her unspoken question.

"Raven left, about six months after Yang was born. Went back to her tribe." Tai explained, his answer doing nothing to sate Red's unease. Qrow and Summer both turned to look at Tai. Apparently being spectacularly good at mind reading, he answered their questions too. "She was curious why Summer was feeling upset this morning, so I told her about what happened at Glenn." Summer nodded in understanding, while Qrow frowned.

"Anyway, on topic." Qrow turned his pointed gaze back towards Red. "We still have to talk about bringing her in. I was thinking tomorrow we could take you to see Ozpin. Show her the ropes. Valkoin will undoubtedly be skeptical of her, but that military blowhard is still in Vacuo for the Vytal Festival, so there's not much he can say to object."

"That sounds fair," Red admitted, still not entirely comfortable with the situation. She reclined into the sofa, her aching body practically groaning in relief. "Though, you still haven't told me what all this is about." Red added after resting a moment.

"Salem," Qrow stated simply. "Ozpin and she have been in a shadow war for a long time. She controls the Grimm, he holds favor with the Hunters and the Kingdoms. Only a few of the top people from each Kingdom know the true nature of his war. Team STRQ was the best team ever to graduate Beacon, so he brought us into the fold." Qrow tucked his scroll into a pocket on the inside of his jacket. "Raven didn't like doing things his way. She abandoned us and went back to our tribe over on Anima. They still keep in contact but I have doubts as to how long that will last. Raven never did like the Huntsmen academies."

"What about the Maidens? Summer never got the chance to tell me about them." Red had all but melted into the couch at this point. It seemed that awakening her aura had worn her out considerably.

"There are always four of them, Summer, Spring, Fall, Winter. Named after the seasons, each holding a specific kind of power that Aura and Semblances can't hope to equal. Stuff like what _you_ can do, except more weather and elemental based. The last Fall Maiden had an uncanny ability with fire, but she died a couple months ago and we've been scrambling to find the woman who inherited her powers." Qrow had also begun to show signs of fatigue, his head drooping slightly. "Ozpin will explain everything tomorrow. I'm wiped out, so I'm gonna hit the sack." Qrow stood up and disappeared upstairs.

"I think I'm with Qrow on this one, I'm exhausted." Summer stood up and suppressed a yawn. "C'mon hun, let's go to sleep." Summer held out a hand to Tai. "Good night Red." She added after a moment. Tai grasped Summer's outstretched hand and followed his wife upstairs after Qrow, leaving Red alone. Slowly, she got up and made her way into her room. The holster on her back came off with a loud pop as Red unsnapped the three buttons holding it locked together. Next came the jacket, which she hung on the closest rounded poster of her bed. The User flopped onto the bed facedown, kicking her shoes off in the process. Red let out a groan of relief, muffled by the sheets and blankets. She sat there for a few minutes before turning over and sitting up, still not able to completely fall asleep. She decided to try to practice with her aura. Summer told her that it was like an extra limb, so she focused on the warm feeling inside, drawing on it, willing it to come out. Almost instantly, a soft blue light began to emit from her hand. The color struck a chord with Red.

"Just like his eyes." Red smiled, tears beginning to pool. Her concentration broke and the light faded away. She took a deep, calming breath and laid down. It had to be his influence on the color of her aura. Red thought it was symbolic. Even after he was gone, they were still together.

Someone knocking on her door jarred Red awake. She didn't recall falling asleep, but the sun shining in through her window told a different story. "Come in," She called out blearily. The door swung open, revealing Summer, now clad in a set of pajamas with what looked like adorable caricatures of Ursas on it.

"I was about to make breakfast and wanted to know what you wanted in your omelette."

Red blinked, rubbing her eyes. "Uhhh, I'm not sure. Give me whatever you're having I guess." Summer nodded and retreated through the threshold, shutting the door in the process. She let out a huge yawn and stood up, slipping into her flats as she did. Her body felt so much better than it did yesterday, the pain having faded completely. In fact, she couldn't remember a time that she had felt more alive and full of energy. She stepped out of her room into the busy living room. Qrow was reclining in the same chair as last night in the same outfit he had on yesterday. She glanced down with a grimace, realizing that he wasn't alone in that matter. Red made a mental note to go shopping when she was in Vale today.

"Morning sleepyhead." Tai commented, a small smirk on his face. Red glanced down at her chrono, which read 9:16. A full four hours after she normally got up.

"First time I've slept this late in years." Red sat down on the couch on the opposite end from Tai. Yang and Ruby, both half asleep, were snuggled up against him. Qrow was busy typing on his scroll. The two girls were watching some sort of cartoon on TV.

"What time are we going to Vale?" Red's voice seemed to snap Tai out of his thoughts. He looked over at her, an odd look on his face.

"Glynda is coming to pick us up in about an hour." He said after a moment, before turning back to the TV. The kids were apparently pretty absorbed in the show.

"Breakfast is ready!" Summer's voice called out from the kitchen. Yang and Ruby both leapt up, the former pressing a button on the remote, freezing the TV show. Qrow was either not eating or didn't hear Summer, as he was still sitting in the chair on his scroll.

Breakfast was quiet, everyone ate their omelettes without much talking or interaction. A far cry from how meals usually were. A few minutes after everyone was done, Tai was taking the girls outside, leaving Summer, Qrow, and Red in the house. Summer headed upstairs and Red went into her room. Just as she stepped back out, now clad in a plain blue, long sleeve t-shirt and grey slacks, the distant whirring of a Bullhead was heard.

"She's early," Qrow stated flatly. Summer and Qrow both followed the rest outside, Red being the last out, grabbing the Transistor in the process. A different type of Bullhead to the one that Glynda came in last was resting in the impromptu landing pad. It was sleeker, and painted a dull grey. A man in a white suit stepped out, his suit a stark contrast to his jet-black hair.

"Mr. Branwen, Mrs. Rose." He spoke with a deep gravelly voice. The man idly fiddled with a silver revolver at his waist.

"General," Summer replied with a curt nod.

"Valk," Qrow grumbled, causing the newcomer to snort in amusement. His piercing green eyes then turned to Red.

He stepped forward and offered a hand. "I don't believe we've met, ma'am. My name is Stehl Valkoin. I'm a general in the Atlas military and current Headmaster of Atlas academy." Red remembered the name as one that Qrow mentioned last night. Red accepted the handshake, noting Qrow's unamused look out of the corner of her eye.

"I thought you were in Vacuo for the Vytal Festival?" Summer asked.

"The Headmaster called me informing me that he wanted to meet with me." The general replied. "He never specified why." Stehl glanced down at his chrono with a grimace. "Speaking of which, we should get going." Together, Stehl, Qrow, Summer, and Red boarded the sleek looking ship. Once all were aboard, Stehl signaled the pilot to take off. Red, not having flown since that one time during the collapse, gripped the safety bar as tightly as she could. The feeling of excess gravity weighing on her slowly faded as the Bullhead reached cruising altitude. Unable to help herself, Red glanced out the window. In the half of a minute or so they had been flying, they were already over the water way between Patch and Vale. The city she had seen from the top of the mesa grew rapidly in her view, appearing much larger than she had initially thought. It seemed to stretch for miles, industrial areas, residential areas, commercial areas. It was less advanced that Cloudbank had been, but she attributed that to the fact that they had to have people build their city, rather than the Process.

Wholeheartedly uncomfortable with flying, Red decided to focus on the bond she had with the Transistor, specifically checking to see if unlocking her aura had adversely affected it. The weapon slipped from her grasp and remained airborne, as easily, if not more so, than before. She smiled softly at her weapon, before returning it to her hand. The flight continued, Red maintaining her focus on the weapon in her hand rather than the flight, and within minutes ended as they landed with a thump. The rear door opened and formed a ramp. At the base of the ramp, were three people: a silver-haired man holding a mug filled with what looked like iced tea, Ozpin, Red presumed, Glynda, and Hazel, the headmaster from Signal Academy.

The General was the first to make their way down the ramp. Ozpin shifted his mug to his offhand and exchanged a welcoming handshake with Stehl. Summer and Qrow were next, followed by Red. The pilot showed no signs of getting off, so Red turned her attention towards the group of people. Ozpin's attention was focused on her. A wave of invisible pressure collapsed on Red, making her tense up. It was the same pressure she felt when she was near one of the more dangerous forms of Process. The last time she had felt it was a year after the collapse when she was ambushed by a Younglady that had snuck out of the building she was clearing and nearly broke the quarantine on it. She had managed to destroy the vaguely humanoid Process, but it had nearly infested half a dozen people whom were present at the press conference. Her attention was wholly focused on the man with the cane.

"You are Mrs. Rose's houseguest, I presume?" He spoke evenly, only a hint of amusement in his tone. Red nodded, forcing herself to relax despite the oppressive, foreboding feeling Red was getting from the man. He smiled politely at her, and motioned for her to follow him. Given that Summer and Qrow were coming too, she shouldn't feel too worried, but Ozpin unnerved her. She couldn't figure out what exactly, he seemed pleasant enough. Filing the feeling away for later, she trailed after her friends and the pair of Headmasters. The halls of Beacon were completely empty. Given that school hadn't started yet it wasn't unexpected, but the silence put Red on edge even more so that she had been. She maintained a white-knuckle grip on her weapon, but kept her face and body calm. This was foreign territory to her. She had gotten used to the medium-sized house on Patch. The positively cavernous space inside Beacon reminded her of when she was digging through the databanks in Royce's personal area in Fairview.

"Miss Red?" A polite voice started Red out of her thoughts. Glynda was looking expectantly at her, Ozpin, Hazel, Stehl, Qrow, and Summer had all begun walking up a staircase that looked like it lead up several floors.

"Sorry, I'm just not used to being somewhere so…" Red frowned, searching for the right word "Grand, I guess. It's so big in here." She admitted freely, hoping to cast a mask over her worry. Glynda seemed to buy it, because she gave Red an apologetic smile.

"I understand," Glynda replied. "The Headmaster wanted me to escort you to the Nurse's office for a checkup. Summer told me that you hadn't had once since the accident that brought you here." Red blinked dumbly, a checkup? She felt perfectly fine.

"I feel fine." Red glanced upward once more, seeing the group of five disappear into what looked like an elevator two floors up. "Honestly, ever since I unlocked my aura, I've never felt better." Red gave what she hoped was a placating smile to the woman, and wasn't the least bit shocked when she was met with a flat glare. With a roll of her eyes, she seceded. "Alright, you win."

"Excellent, it won't take long and then we can have you meet with Ozpin." Red's fight or flight instincts kicked in at the mention of the foreboding man. Glynda had already turned to head down the left passageway, so she didn't notice Red's reaction. She hastily followed the blonde, forcing the discomfort she felt to go away.

Red cleared her throat. "When you say meet, do you mean one-on-one?" She asked as they took a right down what looked like an administrative wing. There were several plaques mounted on the wall. She made out the names of three of the professors before Glynda replied: Doctor Bartholomew Oobleck PhD.; History and Historical Analysis, Professor Marion Peach; Advanced Dust Applications, and Professor Peter Port; Grimm Studies.

"Yes, the initial meeting will be just you and him, but after lunch the seven of us will be all in his office discussing the topics that you and he will cover at your meeting." Glynda stopped and opened a door just past one whose plaque read 'Professor Glynda Goodwitch; Deputy Headmistress and Combat Instructor'. The plaque next to the door that Glynda had entered read 'Auburn Col; Head Nurse and Field Medical Officer'. "Abby?" Glynda questioned the seemingly empty room. A woman with short, branching antlers coming from her forehead peeked out from one of the privacy curtains.

"Glynda," The Faunus greeted courteously, before shifting her gaze to Red. "And you must be my patient." Red nodded once in affirmation, before placing her weapon down leaning on the small desk near the door. Auburn glanced at the weapon, before motioning Red to sit at a simple looking metal chair she had prepared near one of the gurneys. An assortment of tools was laid out on the top tray, most of which Red didn't recognize. The nurse grabbed what looked like a scanning device and aimed it at Red. More specifically, her forehead. She depressed the trigger on the device and held it. "Are you experiencing any pain or weakness?" Red shook her head in the negative. "Any coughing, sneezing, or other symptoms of an illness?" Another shake of the head from Red. "When was your last cycle?" The doctor asked nonchalantly, making Red flush.

"Umm, it ended two weeks ago." She replied hesitantly. Thankfully, the awkward moment was defused as the small machine finally finished its task with a single beep.

The nurse looked down at the rear of the thermometer. "37.2." She read out. "Only slightly above average, but acceptable." The nurse placed the thermometer back onto the tray and cleared her throat. "Next I'll need a height and weight check for our medical records, a blood sample to check your sugar and cholesterol, and that should be it." The nurse motioned her over to a small white box. "Just stand here and the machine will weigh you and measure your height." Red stepped onto the box and a screen in front of her lit up. Two sets of numbers were being displayed. The top one marked as weight read '52.2' kg. The bottom one marked height read '1.65' m. Out of the corner of her eye, Red noticed Auburn rapidly typing the figures onto what looked like a larger version of a scroll.

"Okay, that should be it. You can step down now." Red withdrew from the machine, making the display go dormant once more. She noticed that the nurse now held a small syringe. It didn't look as menacing as the ones she remembered being used at her past visits with doctors were. The nurse rolled up Red's left sleeve, taking note of the frighteningly long scar there. That was a trophy she received when she cleared out the massive nest of Process that had infested the area near her apartment. A Haircut had gotten too close and shrapnel from the exploding squid-like creature tore her arm open, nearly to the bone. Due to her bond with the Transistor, it healed within a week, but the scar remained. She kept it hidden nearly all the time, via either long sleeves or Blue's jacket. Wordlessly, the nurse placed a tourniquet just below Red's bicep, tightening the rubber to an almost uncomfortable level. Slowly, she felt the feeling in her arm begin to fade, and before Red had realized it, the nurse was already putting a bandage on the needle wound. Red hadn't even felt the needle.

"You're officially my favourite patient." The nurse admitted, "I've seen the beefiest men you can possibly dream of scream like little girls when they have to get a shot or have blood taken. You didn't even flinch." Red gave a soft laugh, imaging Qrow screaming like a girl. The feeling returned after Auburn removed the tourniquet. "Well, I'll just run this to my lab. That should be everything, she's all yours Glynda." The nurse hurried out of the room and to the right, shutting the door. The feeling of dread returned in full as she remembered she had to be in the same room as Ozpin, alone.

The trip up to Ozpin's office was short, considering they took the same elevator that Red had seen the group go into initially. His office was very grandiose. The only place that didn't have a curved window was the elevator, which had a very wide window above it. What looked like the inner workings of a clock spun away above her through a massive glass ceiling. Ozpin was sitting at his desk, typing on a holographic display, seeming to not have noticed Glynda and Red enter. He paused to take a sip from his mug, Red faintly making out the sound of ice sloshing around, before turning to face the two people who had entered his office.

"I trust your checkup went alright, Miss Red?" He asked politely, and Red couldn't help but nod placatingly. His aura had lessened slightly, but perhaps it's because he kept glancing back at the screen. Ozpin paused to type something else out, before a small smirk found its way to his face. "Checkmate again, Leo." A gruff sigh could be heard, presumably from the other end of whatever Ozpin was doing.

"I give up, four losses in a row is all my pride can stand for today." A pleasant-sounding man voiced from the desktop. "Same time next week?" The man asked. Red turned to Glynda for a clue as to what was going on, but she had already disappeared.

"Definitely. Goodbye Leo." With that he clicked off the display and turned his attention fully on Red. The oppressive feeling returned in force, making Red unconsciously tighten her grip around the Transistor's handle, something that didn't go unnoticed by Ozpin. He took another sip of his mug before motioning Red to sit at one of the chairs scattered around his desk. She tentatively moved forward, the pressure on her increasing as she got closer to the Headmaster. She sat down in the surprisingly comfortable chair, not letting go of the Transistor for even a second.

"What did you want to discuss?" Red asked, her voice wavering slightly, unable to control it in such proximity to Ozpin. The headmaster hummed in thought for a moment, before placing his mug down on a coaster.

"The first thing I would like is for you to show me this power that Qrow told me about. The one he said, 'erased a group of Taijitu from existence'." Red's eyes widened slightly at the mention of that incident. "Those were his exact words." Ozpin added after a moment.

Red gulped nervously, "Are you sure?" Ozpin didn't verbally answer, instead choosing to give a single nod. She stood up, and backed up a few paces, before triggering SuperUser. Her weapon vanished, merging with her, and an electrical storm flared up across her skin. It was much more powerful than she had ever experienced it before. The pressure from Ozpin lessened significantly, going from an overwhelming force to an uncomfortable feeling. She manually released her self-imposed limiters on her power, and the electricity engulfed her, almost hiding her form completely. Shocks jumped from her floating body to the carpet, which surprisingly didn't ignite. Ozpin's foreboding aura vanished completely, the feeling of SuperUser washing over Red like a warm wave of water. Figuring that Ozpin had had enough, she imposed the limiters once more and suppressed her SuperUser, until not even the faintest crackles could be seen. Ozpin's eyes had widened slightly in surprise, clearly, he hadn't expected such a show. Maybe it had to do with the aura he projected and the fact that she had lessened the effect it was having on her.

"That was… quite impressive." He said, taking another drink from his mug. Red could tell that her display had set him on edge, if he hadn't been before. ' _Good._ ' She thought ' _Turnabout is fair play._ ' Red sat back down, not bothering to turn off SuperUser. Her newfound aura had made it much easier to maintain. A far cry from how she had been a week ago. It was then that Red realized how much progress she had made in just under a week. The headmaster had taken the brief lull to refill his mug, ice from the pitcher clinking and clanking as it fell into the mug. "As Summer and Qrow have made you aware," Ozpin started suddenly as he tucked the pitched into a concealed spot behind his desk. "Salem." He stated with a finality that made Red remember why she came here in the first place. This evil Grimm witch woman wanted to destroy humanity.

"The one controlling the Grimm," Red replied. Ozpin nodded in affirmation.

"Yes, she and I have been in a feud for some time now. Team STRQ was my latest addition to those in my confidential group." Ozpin frowned slightly, something that Red's SuperUser enhanced senses picked up. "The man I was just playing Chess with, he is the Headmaster of Sanctum Academy over in Mistral. In a few weeks I plan to assign him as the Headmaster of Haven and bring him into my group as well. With you and your power, however, I might not have a need of it. His loyalty has more often than not been to the Mistralian Council." Ozpin took a brief break to sip from his mug. "You are aware that the Hunters fight a war of survival, correct?" Red, now aware at how significant the current tone of their discussion was, nodded solemnly.

"I'm familiar with fighting an overwhelming foe to survive." She stated cryptically, going on the basis that Qrow had told Ozpin everything that she had told him, Tai, and Summer. Including her origins.

"Yes, Qrow told me that as well. He said your instincts were as sharp as any veteran Hunters and your power has only grown since your arrival here." Ozpin pulled up a familiar looking picture, the crater in Summer's backyard, as scorched as the moment it happened. The actual crater had long since been repaired and was nearly finished being converted into a swimming pool. She could faintly make out wisps of smoke rising from the site, signifying that this picture had been taken minutes after it had happened. "Quite an unusual and versatile power you have, Miss Red." Ozpin smiled at her over the mug. Red released SuperUser, the strain on her power beginning to become noticeable, and was surprised to find that the oppressive aura that the Headmaster was using had disappeared. She wondered if it was just a test to see how she would react. That thought didn't sit well with her.

"So, I would be fighting Grimm." Red asked. "I had already planned on doing that." She added.

"You wouldn't only be fighting Grimm." The Headmaster stated darkly. "Grimm are not the only enemies Hunters face out there. People are just as much a threat as any Beowolf or Ursa." He pulled up another picture, this time a manic looking man with a long black pony tail was the subject. "This man, Tyrian, he is responsible for a dozen brutal murders in Vacuo, all Hunters. He tortures them, or poisons them with his tail." The picture zoomed out to show a wicked looking scorpion tail jutting from the small of the man's back. "This man is one of Salem's potential agents. His seemingly random targets and his deadly skill set have made it a nightmare to track him down. We believe that he is currently on Menagerie, hiding amongst the Faunus population. We cannot legally enter Menagerie without permission from their chieftain, Ghira. He fought in the recent Faunus Rights Revolution five years ago and was a commander under the group that captured one of Atlas's most powerful Generals." The picture switched again to show the man Red had seen on the news this morning, in all his hairy glory.

"So, what is it you want me to do, exactly?" Red asked, still unnerved by Tyrian's insane look.

Ozpin hummed in thought. "I would like to have you be a freelance agent, like Qrow is. You would travel to places and accomplish tasks that I need done to work against Salem. Only a minority of these tasks would involve Search and Destroy, though you would of course be free to take other bounties in the meantime." Red nodded, signaling Ozpin to continue. "I have recently come across information that the new Fall Maiden has been located in a small village south of Vale," The display changed to show a map of Vale, with a long winding road leading to a small town called 'Mila'. "about halfway to Mountain Glenn. Your first task would be to go there, find her, and bring her here." The display highlighted a point on the map about halfway between the village and Vale. "I have already discussed it with everyone else and they agreed once I showed them what you could do with your power. You would be a valuable asset in the war against Salem"

"Will there be any trouble from the previously mentioned human enemies?" Red asked, genuinely considering Ozpin's offer. It was exactly what Blue would do. He was always a big fan of the superhero vids.

"I would say no, but bandits are a common problem outside the kingdoms." Ozpin relinquished with a sigh. "Most of them don't even have their aura unlocked, but there are more than a few rogue Hunters among their number." Ozpin glanced at his chrono, a small frown appearing on his face. "Everyone else should be here in a few minutes." He pressed a button on the desk and his holographic display vanished. "So, do you accept?" He asked simply.

Red didn't even hesitate. "Yes." It's what _he_ would want her to do, after all.

* * *

 **A/N:** I'm really excited to finally be working on the plot of the story, instead of just doing world building and characterization. Obviously there will be more of both as the story progresses, but I finally have enough of a base to move on with the story. Hope you enjoyed reading it!


	8. Not A Chapter (sorry)

Hey all, I know it's been some time since I posted a new chapter, and I haven't stopped writing, but between College and work, it's been a rough time going and I haven't had much time to devote specifically to writing. I have no guaranteed ETA on the next chapter, but rest assured I am working on it, it's just taking longer than I anticipated. Until I get settled on what direction I want this story to go, expect a once a month update at most.


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